Jinchuuriki Love: Shukaku Style
by Arctic Ice
Summary: Gaara never expected that he would - or could! - be defeated. One pink-haired kunoichi is going to show him that anything is possible: even happiness. GaaSaku. During and Post-Chuunin Exams.
1. Sand, Sunsets, and Sexy

**_A/N_**

So, this is my new story, Jinchuuriki Love: Shukaku Style!

Note: This collection actually has two parts: this story, which is the pairing GaaSaku and Jinchuuriki Love: Kitsune Style, which will be NaruHina. I will probably release Kitsune Style after I finish this story. Which could take a while. But don't worry; it'll be done.

This story was partly inspired by the song, Under A Godless Sky, by Rose Funeral. For some reason, it reminded me of Gaara at the beginning of the series and it made me want to go back and capture that side of him, while writing a good romance story at the same time. You can thank my friend Ben. He's the one who made me listen to the durn thing. ;D

**Word Count: 3,334  
Genre: Romance/Drama (Genre subject to change. Gaara gets a bit angsty.)  
Pairing: GaaSaku  
Prompt: Under A Godless Sky, A want to write a GaaSaku story that doesn't have the word "mine" every paragraph. **

So, I hope you enjoy the first chapter. :D

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I couldn't draw to save my life, let alone a whole manga series.**

* * *

Baki was talking.

Gaara observed this quietly and cocked his head slightly. He supposed he should listen, but he already knew what his brother and sister had yet to discover.

He'd overheard two guards talking about the invasion when he was prowling the village on one of his nightly walks. It was a relatively simple plan: use the demon sealed inside him to wipe out the village itself and keep all the higher-ups occupied fighting Shukaku while the Sand and Sound annihilated the lesser ninja who were left over. After that were the civilians, who would be more than easy to kill. Gaara could almost taste the blood now.

Still, he had a nagging feeling that things would not go as planned. However, Gaara was not born to evaluate tactics on the battlefield. He was born to be a weapon; a killing machine.

He would fulfill his purpose soon enough.

"This is the most important mission you will ever receive. Failure is not an option. Do you understand?" Baki growled.

"Hai!" said Temari and Kankuro in unison.

Baki turned to Gaara, "Your cooperation will determine the success of the mission. Will you accept?"

Gaara only stared at him coldly, "I will confirm my existence."

Baki nodded. He was satisfied with Gaara's answer.

"In that case, move out! I expect you all to be ready by dawn tomorrow. Meet me at the gates. We will be departing from Suna at 5 AM sharp. Dismissed!"

At his words, the Sand Siblings jumped out the window and headed for home. The Chuunin exams were right around the corner, and they would be ready.

Shukaku wouldn't stop pestering Gaara even as they approached the Kazekage's mansion. He seemed to be interested in the invasion, specifically.

_**Ch, you aren't even excited about all the blood we get to spill? I'm disappointed. I thought I taught you better than that, squirt.**_

_Be quiet, you._

_**I can't believe you'd rather stay at home and train rather than going and slaughtering a couple hundred people. What could be more fun?**_

_We'll be there soon enough. Stupid tanukis should learn to be patient._

_**And stupid little jinchuurikis should learn to respect their demon. **_

Shukaku gave Gaara a massive headache. He clawed and bit at Gaara's mind until his eyes began to smart. Gaara made a strangled noise and stumbled into his room.

Shukaku laughed, _**Had enough yet, squirt?**_

Gaara simply growled and clutched at his head. He had endured worse pain than this, even if it was emotional pain rather than physical. At this thought, the damn raccoon dog sent mental images of his uncle, images that made Gaara's heart hurt along with his head.

When Shukaku finally ceased his mental barrage, Gaara collapsed on his futon, gasping for air.

_**Well, squirt, are you gonna go run around outside or not? If we're not going to get there soon, I'm gonna be bored and stuff. **_

_Yes, I'm going to leave soon._

_**Good. I hate being stuck inside all the time. I know that you do too.**_

_Of course. Why else do you think I take walks at night?_

_**I dunno. There's not really anything else to do, though, so it's not like you have a lot of options, squirt.**_

Gaara simply sighed and put his ninja sandals back on. He wrapped cloth around his left shoe quietly and was soon hopping out the window into the darkness below. He kept thinking about the Chunin exams. Not that he was opposed to the chance to confirm his existence, but the bad feeling he had was still lurking. Something told him that the exams were bad news just waiting to happen. Shukaku agreed.

As he hopped along, Gaara supposed that he would miss the familiar sand dunes of his home. There was some sort of ethereal beauty about them, whether it was the way they glowed in the sunset, or simply how smooth they looked. Gaara had a strong affinity to the desert, even though he despised his village.

He reached the top of a particularly high dune and ran his fingers along it, forming trails in the sand. it felt different from the sand he carried in his gourd. That sand had a certain feel to it; the feel of something that had an undertone of evil. This sand, however, was smooth and held a sense of purity. Gaara, for some reason, preferred the sand that lay in dunes. It was calm and peaceful, while his sand was rough and full of rage. As the evening wore on, the golden glow of the sun grew all the brighter, burner ferociously. It blazed low in the desert sky.

The sun was beautiful as well. It was a golden ball in the sky, brightening the entire world. It was so beautiful, Gaara supposed, that human eyes hurt to look at it. He wondered if there was anything in his world could hold that amount of beauty. He didn't think so.

Lifting himself up with a sigh, Gaara raced across the desert again. This time, he was headed for the highest cliff as far as the eye could see. It was, after all, the best place to watch the sunset. Gaara scrambled up the hill, fearing he would miss the best part of the sunset.

As the sun sank below the horizon, for a mere second Gaara could see a flash of brilliant emerald green. He breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't missed it.

Then, as the moon began to raise itself in the sky, Gaara got up and climbed down the cliff. He looked up at the sky with just an ounce of hate because of Shukaku's glee at the sight of the wretched thing.

Because if the sun is a golden ball turning in the sky, the moon is a silver ring that enchants all who see it, turning them into little more than beasts. And Gaara was no exception.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Soon enough, it was early afternoon and the Sand Siblings were well on their way to the Hidden Village of Konohagakure. They however, were unaccostomed to the rather humid climate. Gaara was affected as well, although his siblings were lost on that fact. He seemed as unemotional as ever. Unless intrigue is an emotion.

Gaara stared at the foliage with growing interest. He turned to his sister, "This is called ivy, correct?"

Temari sighed and gulped down some more water, "Yes, that's ivy. It's a type of vine."

Kankuro groaned and let his head loll back of the log he was leaning on, "Come on, let's get out of here. I want to get to Konoha as soon as possible. This damn humidity is really getting to me."

Gaara glared at his brother. Temari simply sighed again and started hopping from tree to tree in response. Baki followed quickly after her.

Gaara thought that Konoha Forest had many strange plants. In Suna, they simply had cacti, albeit, many varieties of said plant. However, in this strange place, they had such things as ivy and daffodils.

Gaara had been on many missions, but none in the Country of Fire. He didn't think that "Fire" suited the place at all; at least, not as far as foliage goes. As far as the climate, who ever named the place had gotten it exactly right. The Country of Fire was sweltering. While he may have lived his whole life in a desert, this was completely different. Konoha Forest was not simply hot, it was humid. The air was so heavy with moisture, all three Sand Siblings could hardly breathe.

"Hey, there's the gate!" Kankuro sighed in relief, "Thank Kami!"

Gaara himself was quite glad to see the gates of the village of Konoha. Traveling all day wore one out.

Once they landed at the gates, a Jounin came out to greet them.

"Greetings! Welcome to Konohagakure. We are delighted to host such important guests. My name is Kasumi and I will be your guide for the remainder of your stay," the cheerful young kunoichi chirped.

Baki frowned, "That will not be necessary. We can surely find our way around adequately by ourselves."

Kasumi kept on smiling, "Alright then. I will inform the Hokage of your request." She jumped off onto the distance, hopping on top of rooftops.

The gates opened slowly with a loud creak. All the sand nin smiled. Konoha had just made the worst mistake of its existence.

There were snakes in the bird's nest, and they weren't going down without a fight.

* * *

After they had checked into their hotel room, Gaara slipped away quietly. He wanted to explore the city himself without Baki or his siblings.

Gaara operated best alone.

As he was walking, Gaara came upon two ninja who appeared to be about his age with three smaller children. They were not unlike the small children of Suna. They certainly acted like them. The older girl had pink hair. Gaara thought that this was quite interesting. He wondered if it was naturally that way. The older boy, who was blond, was blushing. Gaara quietly sat down on the tree branch he had been standing on and observed the five. The pinkette girl seemed to be staring at the boy in a infuriated manner. The boy and the children didn't seem to comprehend this.

One of the small boys, who seemed to be the leader of his little group said, "Hey, nii-chan, who's this big girl?" He then turned to look at her and suddenly, he showed all of his teeth in a wide grin.

"Nii-chan, you're better than I thought. She's your girlfriend ...right?"

The blond boy laughed, "You kids are pretty sharp!"

The pink haired girl did not seemed pleased by this.

She drew back her fist and yelled, "No!"

The blond boy left a rather large hole in the fence from where he collided with it.

_This girl is rather spirited, don't you think?_

**_Yeah, she's just how I like 'em! Strong and feisty!_**

For once, Gaara agreed with the tanuki. There was something about this girl that he liked. However, the action was only getting started down below.

The small boy yelled at the pink-haired girl, "What did you do?" The other two small children ran towards the blond boy and fretted over him. Meanwhile, the small boy continued yelling.

"You ugly girl! Ugly!"

Shukaku growled at these words. Gaara had no idea why. This girl was none of his concern. Why was Shukaku reacting so irrationally? He usually had a plausible reason for acting up.

But the pinkette only cracked her fists and knocked him on the head. Gaara sighed and stood up. He supposed he should go find his siblings.

_Still, I would have liked to stay a little bit longer to see more of her reactions. They are amusing._

**_Ch, more like sexy!_**

Gaara paused. Shukaku, admittedly, was more than a little perverted, but he'd never reacted so quickly or strongly before.

_... You find her sexually attractive?_

**_Of course I do! Man, I haven't been this excited since that one mission in the Rain. Of course, she isn't that pretty face wise, but eh. She makes up for it with her personality._**

_She is lively._

**_That's one way to put it, old man._**

Gaara sighed. he really had to go find his siblings. With one last look of regret, he jumped through the trees towards his sibling's chakra.

* * *

When Gaara arrived at the place where his siblings were standing, he was greeted with the sight of the people he had been observing earlier. They seemed to be in some sort of spat. Kankuro was holding one of the smaller children by his muffler. Gaara sighed. His elder brother always found trouble wherever he went, be it at home in Suna or on a mission.

Gaara decided to watch again, and use what he saw to his advantage during the exams.

"That hurt, brat," Kankuro ground out.

Temari looked away broodily, "Stop it. We're going to get scolded later."

The pink-haired girl spoke up, "Gomenasai. I was joking around, so..." she seemed too frightened to continue.

How would she react when she met him, Subaku no Gaara, the monster of the desert? He hoped she would cower before him, like all the ohers, so he could dismiss her as one of them. The weaklings who dared to defy his existence.

"Hey, let go of that kid!" The blond boy shouted.

"But I want to play around before some noisy people come," countered Kankuro.

The small boy squeaked out, "Let go!" and attempted to kick Kankuro in the stomach.

His brother just laughed, "You're very energetic, kid."

The blond boy shook with anger until he burst out, "Bastard!" and began to run towards the two siblings. Kankuro used one of his many puppet strings to trip the boy. He fell for it easily.

Kankuro scoffed, "Konoha's genin are weak."

Gaara cocked his head. Genin? Something gleamed in the sunlight and he looked down to see Konoha hitai-ai on both of the older ones. How had he missed that?

"Hey! If you don't let him go, I'll kick your ass, baka!" The blond boy yelled.

He didn't seem to notice the obvious difference in abilities between him and Kankuro. A fatal mistake. The pinkette jumped up and put her hand over the blond boy's mouth. She, at least, had the intelligence to know the gravity of the situation.

Kankuro frowned, "You piss me off. I hate little brats anyway. And you're so impertinent for someone younger than me." He grinned, "It makes me want to break you."

The faces of all the others grew even more frightened. Gaara could smell the fear in the air. He knew that the ebony-haired new arrival beside him on the other tree branch could too.

Temari sighed, "I'm not going to be responsible for what you do."

Kankuro looked at the boy he was slowly strangling, "After this brat, the one over there is next."

He lifted his fist up and the blond boy ran after him, yelling something. Suddenly, a rock hit Kankuro's hand. Gaara knew where it came from.

The ebony-haired genin started to speak, "What do you think you're doing in another village?"

The pinkette exclaimed, "Sasuke-kun~!"

Gaara frowned. She changed completely around this annoying, sullen boy. He wondered if she had one of those silly 'crushes' on him that Temari got occasionally. He looked at his sister and saw an uncharacteristic blush on her face. His frowned deepened. Was she catching one of those infernal things again?

Kankuro growled, "Another kid that pisses me off..."

The ebony-haired haired boy, who was possibly named Sasuke, grumbled, "Get lost," as he crushed another rock he'd been holding in his hand.

"Oy! Come down here, kid!" Kankuro called, "I hate brats like you, who think they're so clever."

Quickly, Kankuro ripped Karasu off his back. Gaara wondered if he was going to bring out his favorite puppet so early. It seemed like a foolish move. Temari agreed.

"Hey! You're going to use Karasu?"

Gaara supposed that he should intervene. He didn't want Kankuro to do anything foolish and embarrass himself and their village, after all. He'd forgotton that Kankuro was so rash. He should have stepped in earlier. Gaara swung down and used chakra to attach his feet to the limb he was sitting on.

"Kankuro. Stop," he called.

The kid called Sasuke gasped. He obviously hadn't sensed Gaara earlier.

Gaara frowned, "You're a disgrace to our village."

Everyone below him gasped as well. They hadn't sensed him either. Fools.

"G-Gaara-" Kankuro stuttered.

He interrupted him, "Why do you think we came all the way here to Konoha?"

Kankuro gulped, "Listen, these guys started it!"

He was really starting to irritate Gaara with his excuses, "Be quiet. I'll kill you."

Kankuro raised his hands in defeat, "I was at fault. G-gomen. Gomena."

Gaara turned to the Konoha ninjas, "Excuse them."

_He hit Kankuro's hand with a rock so easily. He's good._

Gaara shushined down to his siblings in a swirl of sand. He told them, "Let's go. We didn't come here to fool around."

Kankuro groaned, "I know..."

They turned around to walk away, but the pinkette stopped them.

"Wait," she said.

They paused. Temari replied, "What is it?"

The pinkette plowed on, "Judging from your hitai-ai, you are ninjas from the Hidden Village of Suna,"

_She's intelligent._

**_Ch, did you expect anything less?_**

_Hai._

She continued, "The Country of Fire and the Country of Wind have an alliance, but a treaty prevents ninja from entering each other's country's without permission. State your purpose. According to your reasons, I will-"

Temari snorted, "What you are looking for is closer to you than you think. You don't know anything? This is a traffic pass," she held hers up, "As you guessed we're genin from the Hidden Village of Suna from the Country of Wind. We came to this village to take the Chuunin Selection Exam."

_Well, partially, at least._

Gaara tuned out the rest. Whatever was said was not important to him, anyway. That is, until that brat Sasuke called out to him.

"Hey, you there, What's your name?"

Temari turned around with her face stained pink, "Me?"

"No, the one with the gourd next to you," he stated. Gaara turned around at his description. He looked at Sasuke with mild interest.

"Subaku no Gaara. I also find you interesting. What is your name?" He wanted the this kid's full name, of course.

He smirked, "Uchiha Sasuke."

The blond kid piped up, "Hey, hey, what about me, what about me?"

Gaara eyed him and deadpanned, "I have no interest in you."

With that the Sand Siblings jumped away in the direction of their hotel room. The Chuunin exams hadn't even begun and they were already getting interesting.

* * *

Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. :D

Reviews make me happy,  
_Arctic Ice_


	2. She's One Tall Glass of Water, All Right

**A/N**

So, here we are again. Sorry about the dreadfully long wait, but I was frightfully busy.

Just a note, but I'm going to try and keep as much of the Japanese in here as I can, because I want it to be authentic and loosely follow Kishimoto-sama's storyline, because it's genius. Even if he does stuff I don't like. However, some events will be significantly different.

Oh, and I know only very basic Japanese, so you more than likely won't have to worry about not understanding it.

By the way, thank you so so much to all of the lovely, wonderful people who reviewed last chapter. You really gave me the kick in the ass I needed to write and post this chapter. Thanks so much!

On that note, I would like to add that I adore constructive criticism. Specifically, I would like to be told if I'm spelling something wrong in Japanese. I've decided to change my prior spelling of 'chunin' and 'jinchuriki' to 'chuunin' and 'jinchuuriki'. I'm not sure why, but I prefer those spellings. So, anyway.

**Word Count: 3,228 (It's a bit shorter.)  
Genre: Romance/Drama  
Pairing: GaaSaku**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Deidara and Itachi wouldn't be dead. 'Cause they're awesome. Anyway.**

* * *

When Sakura woke up, the sun was shining brightly, birds were chirping, and clouds danced in the sky.

However, as soon as she rousted herself out of bed, she sensed an unfamiliar chakra. It bothered her. As she pulled on her sandals and tied her hitai-ai at the nape of her neck, she tried to ignore it. Still, Sakura had the strangest sensation that she was being watched. She glanced out her window only to see her balcony and the tall tree outside of it. She shook her head. She needed to hurry, or Naruto would get to Sasuke-kun before she did!

Sakura glanced at her clock. _I wonder if he's there yet. _

As Sakura jogged up to the bridge, she found that Naruto was already there. She didn't think she'd been that late, but there he was, loudly arguing with Sasuke about something unimportant. Even though her morning had been completely ordinary, she still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling of being watched. Sakura shifted from foot to foot nervously and waited for Kakashi-sensei to arrive.

When Naruto finally noticed her, he shouted, "Hey, Sakura-chan! You look really pretty today!"

Sakura sighed, "Arigato, Naruto."

_**Damn it! Why couldn't Sasuke-kun say something for once?**_

At that moment, Kakashi poofed right next to Sakura and startled her. An odd _eek_ sound escaped her lips as she jumped.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry I'm late. I had to see a man about a horse-"

"LIAR," Naruto and Sakura shouted simultaneously.

Kakashi sighed, "Well, let's get to it. Naruto and Sasuke, start sparring. Sakura, observe."

Sakura groaned internally. She almost never got to spar. Kakashialways made her "observe". Maybe he wanted to get her out of the way so the real ninja could work. Inner Sakura growled at the thought.

_**We could kick their asses if he'd just let us train! Ugh! Asswipe! **_

_Kakashi-sensei is so unfair. He should train us. Besides, we need to be stronger for the Chuunin Exams._

_**Yeah. He's our sensei after all. We should be learning something new, Shannaro!**_

_Yatta! I'm going to go ask him to help us! _

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura called.

Kakashi looked up from his beloved porn with a surprised look on his face, "Hai, Sakura?"

Sakura gulped, "Sensei, could you teach me more techniques? I know that I'm not nearly as strong as Sasuke-kun or Naruto, but would you please help me?"

Kakashi sighed, "Sakura…"

Her expression hardened, "Kakashi-sensei, please."

Kakashigroaned, "Fine, fine. What do you want to learn?"

Sakura grinned, "I want to learn something that's not a basic. Something that'll help me during the Exams."

Kakashi shook his head, "Alright. Come over here." As Sakura skipped over, Kakashi started to think of a jutsu he could teach her.

"Here, push some chakra into this," He shoved a small blank piece of paper into her hands, hoping to get an idea of what to do.

"Okay," Sakura smiled.

She recognized the paper from one of the textbooks she'd been reading lately. It had something to do with determining what element a ninja was most suited to. She pushed just a little in, seeing as the textbook proclaimed that only a minuscule amount was necessary. The paper promptly became soaking wet. Sakura's eyes widened.

She gasped, "I'm a water type?"

Kakashi nodded, "It would seem so. Well then, let's get started. How about we begin with a Water Clone?" He quickly formed a few simple hand seals and soon enough, another Kakashi was standing behind him.

"Hai," Sakura shouted as she replicated his hand seals. Surprisingly, a perfect water clone appeared behind her.

Kakashi's lone eye widened. _How did she master that so fast? _He knew that Sakura was easily the most intelligent kunoichi of her generation, but he had no idea that she was this talented. Kakashi made a mental note to train with her more often. If she was trained properly, she could easily surpass the great Sannin and healer Tsunade.

"Since you've got that down, how about we move on to something more complicated?" Kakashi had something in mind that was much more complicated. He wanted to test her limits. If Sakura could master this in a week, which he doubted, she might very well be a genius.

Kakashi quickly performed the jutsu as he said calmly, "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu." A river of water exploded from nowhere, knocking down Sakura and soaking most of the surrounding forest.

Sakura got up with a laugh, "Isn't that the jutsu you used in the Land of Waves? It's familiar."

Kakashi's eye formed it's signature u-shape, "Hai, it's the jutsu I used."

"Alright," Sakura took a deep breath, "Suidon: Daibakufu no Jutsu." A stream of water spilled out onto Kakashi's ninja sandals, soaking his leg bandages.

Kakashi shook his head. Did he expect any less from his brilliant student?

Sakura sighed, "I guess I didn't get it right…"

Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder, "No, Sakura, you did exceptionally for a person who has never used that jutsu before. It's quite a difficult technique. Work on that this week and see if you can master it."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura smiled.

He walked over to Sasuke and Naruto, who had by this time almost wore each other out. He put a hand on both of their forehead and said something to them.

Sakura sighed. She really hoped she could master this new technique. It would be very useful in the Chuunin Exams.

Naruto came bounding up to her, "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan! I almost beat the teme today!"

Sasuke snorted, "In your dreams, baka."

Naruto, "Shut up teme, I did! Sakura-chan, did you see me?!"

Sakura frowned, "No, Naruto. I was busy training too." Her expression changed in a coy smile as she turned to Sasuke, "Sasuke-kun, want to walk me home?"

"No," Sasuke quickly walked away.

Sakura's frown returned as she sighed. _Well, there's always tomorrow. _

She tried to think of new ways to make Sasuke notice her at the Chuunin Exams tomorrow, but was interrupted by Konoha's Number One Hyperactive Ninja.

"Ne, Ne, Sakura-chan, want to go eat ramen with me?"

Sakura sighed, "No, Naruto."

Naruto's smile disappeared, "Okay, Sakura-chan. I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early, right?"

Sakura smiled a little before she caught herself, "Yeah, Naruto. I'll be there."

Naruto's huge smile appeared again, "Ja ne! Dattebayo!"

Sakura shook her head and grinned. Naruto was finally starting to grow on her, even if he wasn't cool or strong like Sasuke-kun.

"Well, I might as well train some more. I've got chakra left." She said mostly to herself.

* * *

Gaara shook his head. He didn't think he would ever understand this hotheaded pinkette.

_**Sakura, **_Shukaku automatically corrected him, _**Her name is Sakura… and what a pretty name at that. It doesn't really suit her, other than her outward appearance. Sakura blossoms are soft; her tongue is as sharp as a kunai.**_

_Hai. I prefer her when she's like that._

**_Hmm, I thought you would. _**Shukaku was quiet before piping up again. **_But, hey, squirt, can you imagine what her blood would look like? Man, I've never come across someone like her. A girl with that fiery a personality has got to have the tastiest blood. I bet its ruby red and glistening…_**

A feral grin spread across Gaara's face.

Shukaku continued to rile Gaara up by putting images in his head of this strange girl, covered in her own blood. _**Her pretty hair would look even more so soaked in her own crimson blood.**_

_Hai, it would. _Gaara's grin faded, _However, I was asked not to kill anyone before the exams started. It would look suspicious if a genin kunoichi went missing in her home village._

_**C'mon, squirt. It's just one person. They won't care. Shinobi are pawns.**_

_Her… friends would. _Gaara cringed at the hated word. _They would notice. _

_**Eh, I suppose you're right. On that thought, why are you dwelling on this girl so much?**_

_I don't know. I just don't know. Stupid pink-haired girl. Why can't you just get out of my head? Why do you have such an easy life? Damn you! Damn you and your friends. _Gaara's thoughts took a bloody thirsty tone. _I will kill you myself, before anyone else does. You will be mine alone to destroy. I will eradicate you like I have everyone else who affected me. Live in fear, girl that is named Sakura. I am waiting for you._

_**That's more like it. Now, where did she live again?**_

* * *

Sakura began breathing heavily as she tried the jutsu for the fifth time. The water flow was a greater this time, but not by much. She cursed in frustration.

After her tenth try, Sakura decided to call it quits. She quietly headed for home. Her mother greeted her warmly and her father asked about training. She answered their questions, got some dinner, and then headed up to her room. All she wanted now was some much needed sleep.

As she slipped into the shower, Sakura reflected on how the day had gone. She'd made great progress in her training and maybe in the Chunin Exams she'd manage to master that technique. At least she'd learned something new.

After she slipped into her pajamas, Sakura discovered that the feeling of being watched was still there. It had disappeared briefly after Naruto had gone and she'd begun to train, but now it was back again. She cursed under her breath. Maybe she should go ask Ino if she could spend the night…

Sakura shook her head, trying to dispel the errant thought. The exhaustion must have been making her loopy. There was no way in hell that Ino would just "let her sleep over" like they were all buddy-buddy.

Sakura crawled into her bed and slipped into unconsciousness.

Soon enough, she was having a nightmare. In her dream, Sasuke was walking away from her slowly, never once looking back. She called his name over and over but he seemed not to hear her. Sakura shifted in her sleep, mumbling quietly, "No..."

Unfortunately, someone else heard her quiet plea. And he was currently thinking about how beautiful her hair would look soaked in her own blood.

* * *

**_Kill her quickly. Then we can toy with her all we want afterwards._**

_I want to see the terror on her face when I crush her frail body in our sand. We can still see her hair afterwards, if that's what you're holding out for._

**_Fine, squirt. Do it your way. Just don't blame me when something goes wrong._**

_What do you mean, foul tanuki?_

**_I dunno. I just have a feeling. If we don't do this quick, then something is going to go terribly awry._**

_Hn. I don't care what you say. I'm going to slowly squeeze her breath out until her lungs pop._

**_Fine. See if I care._**

Gaara jumped off of the small railing of Sakura's balcony. The lock on her door was surprisingly easy to break. Shouldn't shinobi have stronger security? Obviously Konoha had known peace for far too long.

He walked silently into her room, looking at the lightly colored walls and her plain furniture. Sakura's room was ordinary. When Gaara saw the small picture of team 7, he stopped and padded over to look at it. He lifted the picture frame up and examined the body posture of the four. Even if they didn't look it at first glance, the team was obviously very close. Gaara's heart was heavy with jealousy. This girl had important friends. People who loved her. How could she, an insignificant person, have what he lacked? It made him angry. This girl had everything and she took it for granted.

Boiling with rage, Gaara turned around to face the pink-haired kunoichi. He raised his hand and his sand flew forward. It wrapped around Sakura's petite frame easily, like it would a porcelain doll. She would be crushed just as easily.

Gaara always lost himself in the moment that his prey was killed. It was a sense of relief. But this time, when he went to close his hand, already savoring his victory over this young girl, he broke his carefully cultivated method of murder. He looked at Sakura again.

She had been tossing and turning fitfully before; it was obvious that she had been having a nightmare. That was to be expected. People were generally affected by his killer intent. However, she was sleeping peacefully now. Her breathing was even and there was a small smile on her face. Whatever was bothering her when he had arrived had suddenly disappeared. Not only that... Gaara stared in disbelief at her. She was cuddling with his sand! She was snuggling up to it, even attempting to burrow into it further than she already was.

Gaara was stunned. No one had ever been unafraid encased in his sand, conscious or not. And not only that, Sakura was not simply unafraid of the foul presence of his sand, she was enjoying the experience. His sand had eased her mind. She was, interestingly enough, comforted by it. This girl amazed him to no end.

Gaara was struck by something: perhaps his sand could be used in another way, not just to kill, and protect only himself, but to comfort and protect others. He shook his head. It was a novel concept. His sand was meant to be used as a weapon, not a blanket.

**_You know, of all my hosts, you're the only one who has even considered the possibility that our sand is not only a weapon, but something more. I'm not simply bloodthirsty, you know. I once had a mate._**

_Really?_

**_Yeah. Hey, maybe someday, we'll find a woman that's the mate for us._**

_I doubt it._

**_Whatever, squirt. Now that I think about it, my mate was also drawn to... eh. Never mind._**

_What? Shukaku, you're confusing me._

**_I'll tell you when you're older, squirt. And when it's time to look for a mate for us._**

_And when will that be?_

**_It varies from host to host. I'd say for you... maybe three years. Don't worry, you won't be looking for a mate all the time, just when your body tells you to. It's the downfall of being the tanuki jinchuuriki._**

_I don't understand._

**_Oh, that's right! I forgot, no one's told you about the nasty-nasty yet. Heh heh. That'll be amusing._**

_The what?_

**_...I'll tell you when you're older. Hey, she's waking up!_**

_What? Kuso!_

Gaara looked down at the sleeping girl. He groaned. Shukaku had distracted him again. Oh well.

He let his eyes rake Sakura's form. He had to admit, when she was asleep she was very pretty. Her pastel pink hair was sprayed out like a fan on her pillow, and her cheeks were slightly rosy. Before he could ask himself what in Kami's name was he doing, Gaarareached down and stroked her face. Without any thought, he traced her jawline and her lips. She really was beautiful.

Sakura sighed in her sleep and grabbed his hand. Gaara came to his senses as he gasped and impulsively tried to pull away, but she kept him in a death grip. She nuzzled into his hand and sighed happily again.

Gaara's mouth was hanging wide open at this point. He hadn't been touched by another person this intimately in years and now... Now this beautiful kunoichi was burying her face into his hand, and he _liked it_. That was what was most strange for him. She was warm and soft. And she smelled really good.

_Stop it. I don't like her. I am not catching one of those blasted crushes. They are infuriating and pointless and..._

Sakura pulled his hand closer to herself, causing him to lean in. Kami, she smelled heavenly.

..._absolutely wonderful._

Sakura slowly let go of his hand, and Gaarapulled back immediately. He glared at the sleeping girl. How dare she make him feel like this. How dare she make him act like this! He frowned. How dare she give him those Kami-blessed flutterings in the pit of his stomach.

Gaara sighed. He'd have to reflect on this later, when he wasn't intoxicated by her scent, or fighting the uncontrollable and utterly irrational urge to nuzzle her neck and feel her warm, soft skin. Or to lick her and see if she tasted as good as she smelled.

Of course, none of this _really_ had a hold on him. Oh no, Gaarawasn't affected at all by this insignificant girl.

Right.

He shook his head, gathered his sand back in his gourd -Sakura noticeably whimpered- and quickly jumped out the window. He recalled Kankuro saying something that fitted the moment.

_What was it again? Ah, yes. _

_Damn hormones._

* * *

**A/N**

I hope Gaara wasn't too OOC. I tried to explain that he's really just acting by instinct when he caresses her face (i.e. he's not thinking about it, he's just acting).

Also: Hmm, what ever can Shukaku be thinking? Fu fu fu. I guess you'll just have to wait, won't you? =]

Reviews are tasty,  
_Arctic Ice_

Next Chapter:The Exams begin! Including but not limited to: mind games, third eyes, sand, puppets, tricksters, idiots, and failures. Oh me, oh my!


	3. Hey There, Fuzzy Brows

**_A/N_**

Welcome back. It's nice to see you all again. :D I updated much faster than I normally do, on account of the rough draft of this chapter was the second half of She's a Tall Glass of Water, All Right. I decided to divide after seeing that it was about 5,500 words long. This is said second half.

**Word Count: 4,523 (You can see that I added quite a bit; this was once only as long as chapter two.)  
****Genre: Romance/Drama  
Pairing: GaaSaku**

**Caution: This chapter contains quite a bit of foul language and teeny-bopper blood-lust. You've been warned.**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I do, however, own a bass guitar. Steal it and DIE._

So, here's chapter three: Hey there, Fuzzy Brows. Enjoy.

* * *

Sakura opened her eyes blearily and rubbed the sleep from them. She looked around her room and as she did this, she noticed two things. One, her lock was broken. Two, there was sand in her bed. She vaguely remembered having a dream involving sand. Sand and a person who smelled really nice; like the desert and sandalwood. She was really sad when the person and the sand left. It had been a nice dream, really.

Sakura sighed and got up. She quickly changed into her shorts and dress, strapping her kunai pouch on the side of her leg. Today was the day; the day of the Chuunin Exams. Sakrua had never felt more nervous in her life. She wanted dearly to impress Sasuke-kun, but she also wanted to pass the exams. She honestly wanted to be a Chuunin.

_Well, enough wallowing. I told Naruto I'd be there bright and early!_

_**Shannaro! Let's get moving!**_

* * *

As Team Seven walked up to what seemed to be the room 301, they were greeted by a strange sight. A boy in green spandex was being knocked to the ground by an older boy standing in front of the door with another guy his age. A girl with two brunette buns on the top of her head was helping him up.

Sakura could almost instantly tell that the room number was a fake. For one, they were only on the second floor, and two, it was a badly formed genjutsu. Honestly. Chakra was leaking out everywhere. Also, there was a genjutsu over the two self-proclaimed bouncers. It was a much higher quality genjutsu and was nearly impossible to detect for a ordinary Genin.

Of course, Sakura was no ordinary Genin.

So, she piped up, "Oh, just let us through already. I know that you've got a genjutsu over the door. " Sakura left out the body genjutsu because, for some reason, she didn't think it was really important.

Sasuke's eyes widened, "How did you see that before me?"

Sakura blushed to the roots of her pink hair, creating an interesting contrast. She looked down and made circles with her toe, "I just did, I guess..."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Annoying."

The two guys cursed and released their genjutsu. One spoke up, "Really, we were only trying to do you a favor. The Chuunin exams aren't for little genin rookies. But it's not just detecting jutsu, it's also..."

The boy thrust up a kick at Sasuke who raised up his leg to defect the attack and counter it when the boy in green spandex appeared out of nowhere and stepped in between them, grabbing onto both their legs.

Sakura gasped. She'd never seen anybody move that fast before. _He's different from the person who was just being pushed around. Even his brusies are gone! I wonder if they were fake after all..._

A kid with lavender, pupiless eyes walked up to the other kid and said, "Hey, you broke the promise. After all, you're the one who suggested that we not do anything that would attract attention and make us stand out."

When the girl with the buns saw Lee look at Sakura and blush, she shook her head and nodded towards her, "She must be why..."

The boy in the green spandex walked confidently over to Sakura and proclaimed, "My name is Rock Lee. You are Sakura-san, right?"

Sakura only looked confused, "Eh?"

Lee winked and gave her a thumbs up. He was still blushing, "Let's go out together. I'll protect you with my life!"

Sakura looked dumbstruck, "Uh, no... thanks."

_Is he serious?_

Lee looked equally stunned, "What?"

**_Looks like it, sweet cheeks._**

Sakura could only twitch, "You're too... 'unique' for me." Naruto chuckled.

The boy with the pupiless eyes called out to Sasuke, "Hey, you there. Identify yourself."

Sasuke only replied, "You're supposed identify yourself before you ask."

The lavender-eyed boy said in monotone, "You're a rookie, aren't you? How old are you?"

"I'm not obligated to answer that." Sasuke said in an equally toneless voice.

His brow creased in anger, "What?"

Sasuke simply walked away from the boy towards the piece of wall where Naruto and Lee were having a pity party. Lee was muttering something about being "too unique" and Naruto was whining that no one cared about him.

Sakura smiled, "Sasuke-kun, Naruto, let's go!" She grabbed both of their wrists and began pulling them away. Slowly, she let go of them and the three walked in silence. Soon, they found themselves in a large, square-like room with large white pillars. Then, a voice called out to them from above.

"You, with the black hair; wait!"

All three of them turned around in surprise. There stood the green-clad genin they'd seen before. He was standing in the balcony above them.

Sasuke yelled back, "What do you want?"

His caterpillar-like eyebrows met, "Will you fight me, right here, right now?"

"Right here, right now?"

"Hai," He jumped down, "My name is Rock Lee. You're supposed to identify yourself before you ask another's name, isn't that right," He pointed at him, "Uchiha, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he scoffed, "So you know my name."

Lee adopted a fighting stance, "I would like to fight you. I want to see how my moveswork against your genius ninja clan. Also..." He looked at Sakura and blushed, "Sakura-san. I love you."

Sakura could only twitch, "Eh?"

"You're an angel." Lee proceeded to blow a kiss to her, which transformed into some weird, squishy heart thing. Sakura quickly dodged it.

Suddenly, an emotionless voice from above said, "Hey you, in the green jumpsuit."

All four looked up and said, "Eh?" simultaneously. Gaara was standing on the balcony ledge, glaring down at them. Well, not at all of them , per say. He was focused completely on Lee.

Gaara disappeared in a flash of sand and reappeared on the ground in the same manner. He walked up to Lee and crossed his arms. With piercing eyes he continued to stare him down. Finally, he spoke, "Fight me. Now."

Lee looked utterly confused, "What?"

Gaara continued glaring, "Are you deaf or just stupid? I said fight me."

Lee shrugged as if it was all the same to him, "As you wish. You are a strong opponent as well." He put his arms in front of his body and shifted his feet into his prior fighting stance.

_Is Lee bat-shit crazy? He seems strong, but that sand kid is so scary! What was his name again? Gaara? _

**_Yeah, that's the one. He's cute, but psycho. I guess things even out, eh?_**

_Kami help him, Lee's gonna get killed!_

**_Yeah, probably. It's a shame. He seemed like a nice guy. He thought we were pretty, at any rate._**

_Yeah. No one ever calls me pretty. Except for Naruto, but eh... He's just like that._

Gaara simply uncorked his gourd, "Well, then. Let us begin."

_Kusokusokusokuso. Watch out, Lee!_

* * *

He was going to kill this bastard. Fuck the mission, this sorry excuse for a shinobi had dared to try and take what was his. He was going to rip this green fucker limb from limb and spit on his corpse. There would be blood, oh yes. Plenty of blood. That wasn't what he was concerned about, however. No, this time he just wanted to slaughter whoever came between him and what was his. And she _was _his, Goddamnit, and he wasn't going to let anything or anyone change that. Not the stuck up, chicken-ass-for-a-haircut motherfucker over there, not this caterpillars-for-eyebrows bastard, not anyone.

**_Kill him! Killhimkillhimkillhimkillhim NOW. KILL. RIP. SHRED!_**

Lee charged him with surprising speed. Gaara's eyes widened a fraction.

**_Doesn't matter. DESTROY!_**

Gaara's hand flew up and swung around towards Lee. He quickly closed it slightly, effectively trapping him. Lee struggled and squirmed, only causeing the sand to constrict tighter and tighter. Gaara grinned sadistically. He was enjoying this. He couldn't wait until he actually closed his hand, and this fucker's blood splattered on the walls.

Suddenly, Gaara was slapped. His head spun as he was flung backward about five yards. It was one hell of a slap, that's for sure. The sand armor covering his face cracked. He looked up and saw a man in a Konoha Jounin vest, green spandex, and orange leg warmers, not unlike the boy who was currently crawling out of Gaara's sand.

He glared at the man. No one had dared to slap him before. The man simply gave him a stern look before turning to the kid and giving him a hand up. He turned around to face Gaara.

He said to him, "No fighting is allowed until the exams begin. Now, get to the examination room. I'm sure your team is waiting for you."

Gaara's glare hardened. He wanted to kill this man for disrespecting him, but there were witnesses. And one of those witnesses was Sakura. Now that he was in control of his thoughts and actions, he wondered why that mattered. It wasn't like she meant anything to him. She was just some Konoha kunoichi that he would more than likely kill in his rampage at the finals.

_Why does that bother me? It doesn't matter that I could kill her. She's just some girl._

**_That's where you're wrong, squirt._**

_What do you mean, Shukaku?_

**_Never mind. You're so blind, squirt. It's a wonder you can see anything._**

_... I have 20/20 vision. I am most certainly not blind._

**_That's not what I meant- ugh. Just forget it._**

Gaara looked up. He had reached the exam room. He hadn't even noticed that he'd been walking. Kankuro and Temari were probably worried that he'd have slaughtered a couple civilians during his 'walk'. That was certainly amusing. He had better things to do than kill something that wasn't even a challenge. He liked to fight his prey, thankyouverymuch.

He wondered why he'd even wanted to go look for Sakura in the first place. It wasn't like she meant anything to him. She was just another face in the crowd of people who were afraid of him. Who despised his very exsistence. It didn't really matter, he decided. He'd only hurt her sooner or later. Why worry about her now?

Oh well. He'd just have to pass this exam, slaughter a few thousand people, and get on with his life. That wasn't too complicated.

If only he knew how wrong he was.

* * *

Sakura was really starting to wonder if this exam was worth the trouble. She'd almost had a panic attack watching Lee get nearly squished to death. She was right about those sand nin. They were dangerous. Extremely so, it seemed. She couldn't believe that he'd been so ready to kill someone. It was almost like he wanted him dead. She didn't know why, though; it wasn't like Lee had done anything to him or someone precious to him.

Kabuto, who seemed friendly enough, had warned them about the dangerous shinobi here. To empathize his point, he'd even shown them a card with that sand nin's name and information on it. He seemed to be the leader, and the most frightening of all of them. Besides, he'd already completed an A-rank mission. Those were risky. Sakura was not an idiot. She knew that you could potentially die on any mission, regardless of rank, but A-ranks were more hardcore than anything she went on. Even on the one mission that could be considered A-rank, she had been useless. Sakura disliked being useless.

Regardless, it was crunch time and Sakura felt that she was ready for anything this Exam threw at her. She cracked her knuckles and took her seat and prepared for the written exam.

Sakura looked up at Naruto. He was already freaking out. She grinned. _This must be the worst kind of test for him._

Then the examiner - Morino Ibiki, was it? - started to speak, "There are a couple of rules for this first exam. I will not accept any questions, so listen carefully."

Sakura was nonplussed. _Rules? Won't accept any questions?_

Morino Ibiki was still talking, "The first rule is that you are each given ten points to start. The written exam has ten questions. Each is worth one point. This is a deduction based test. If you answer a question incorrectly, you get one point deducted. So, if you miss three questions, then your score will be reduced by three. Second Rule: the pass-fail decision will be determined by your teams total points."

Sakura bashed her head on her table, "Wait! Your team's total points? What?"

Ibiki growled, "Shut up! There is a reason for this. Just shut up and listen. Now that you know this, let's move on to the next rule. If an examiner determines that you cheated or did something similar during the test, each action will cost you two points. In other words, there a people who will leave this place without their tests being graded."

Sakura frowned_. So there's another ways to lose points other than to just get the questions wrong. _

"Those who try to cheat without thinking carefully will only hurt themselves."

Another Chuunin examiner spoke, "We'll 'check' you at any time."

Ibiki added, "You are all trying to become Chuunins. If you are a ninja, act like a first-rate one."

_Okay, stay calm, Sakura. Just calm down. Naruto aside, Sasuke-kun and I will be fine. Even if Naruto gets a zero, we'll just have to make up for it. _

"Also, if anyone on a team gets a zero, everyone on that team will fail."

Sakura started to panic. Naruto just needed to get one question right. Just one! The questions shouldn't be that hard, right?

"The last problem will be given forty-five minutes after the test starts. You have one hour for the exam. Begin!"

Sakura looked at the problems. _I think I'm in a terrible situation... Naruto, you better not get a zero!_

As she looked through all the questions, she found that, much to her dismay, they were all difficult. _This is a compound question that involves figuring out facts from individual conditions and physical analysis. Naruto can't solve this! Actually most of the people here can't figure this out. If I assume that only about 10 out of the 51 teams here can pass this, then we have to get as many points as possible, no matter what! This system almost makes you cheat... I hope Sasuke-kun and Naruto won't start. _She looked up at the latter. _We should be okay. Naruto isn't that stupid. I know._

She smiled._ We'll be okay._

* * *

Gaara looked over the test questions.

_This is bullshit. That examiner told us not to cheat, but these questions are impossible to answer for someone with average intelligence or below, like Kankuro. They will have to cheat. To be honest, so will I._

_**So cheat. No fucking duh, squirt**__._

Gaara summoned his sand from his gourd to form his third-eye jutsu. He closed his left eye and formed an orb of sand in his palm.

_The nerves of the eye are now connected. Open the third eye. Now, who to copy off of..._

Gaara knew that Sakura would have all of the right answers. He decided that it would be better to look at her paper than to take a risk with some uncertain person. He crushed the sand in his palm and slowly it started to form in front of Sakura's paper. The sand flew around her eyes, making them water. She started to rub them, giving him the perfect opportunity to memorize her answers. After he was done writing, Gaara couldn't resist, he used the eye to look at Sakura without detection. She still looked pretty.

_Kuso. Damn these infernal things called hormones._

Suddenly, she stopped rubbing her eyes.

_Fuck! _Gaara quickly dispelled the jutsu, so as she wouldn't detect his presense. Time passed by slowly. Gaara was already done with his test. He was one of the few who were. He smirked when he realized that Sakura was among them. Shukaku was right: she was smart. After a while, Gaara wondered if anything would break the silence. He wished that something - anything! - would happen. He was not disappointed.

"Excuse me!" called Kankuro.

Gaara sighed. So, he'd finally started. What a pain.

"What is it?" called one of the idiot examiners.

"I've got to go the bathroom."

Gaara rolled his eyes. Kankuro always had the crassest plans. Time seemed to crawl even more slowly than before. The clock ticked menecingly. _Kankuro better hurry his ass up._

"I will now give the tenth problem!" the scarred examiner boomed.

Gaara ground his teeth. Kankuro still wasn't back yet. The fool was going to throw the entire mission, just for a bathroom break. Gaara snorted. Bladder urges were overrated.

"Yet, before that, there's one thing I must say. There will be one special rule for this question."

Kankuro chose this exact moment to stroll through the door. The baka had the audacity to look surprised.

The scarred examiner chuckled, "You're lucky. Your puppet show didn't have to go to waste."

Gaara's eyes widened. Did he know about Kankuro's cheating?

"Oh well," the examiner sighed, "sit down."

For once, Kankuro complied and sat down. However, not before dropping something in front of Temari.

"I will now explain. This is a hopeless rule. First, you are going to decide if you wish to take the tenth problem or not."

His elder sister spoke up, "Choose? What if we choose not to take the tenth problem?"

Was she serious? Of course they were going to take the tenth problem. Her questioning of this man was annoying and unnecessary.

"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero. In other words, you will fail. Your entire team will fail along with you. And here's another rule: if you choose to take it and get it wrong you will never be able to take the Chuunin Exams again."

A boy who had been using his ninken to cheat off those around him stood up and growled, "What kind of dumb rule is that? There should be those here who have taken the exam in the past!"

The examiner chuckled, "You were unlucky. This year, I am the rule. That's why I gave you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose not to take it and take the exam next year, and the year after that. Let us begin."

He looked around the room, as if to see who would crack under the pressure from his mind games; for that was what they truly were. Gaara, however, was not intimidated by this frightening man. He respected him, of course. He was very talented in this area. Gaara idly wondered if Sakura had figured out his games yet. She should have. After all, she was rather intelligent.

The examiner spoke again, "Those who will not be taking the tenth question this year, raise your we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave."

Not surprisingly, many chose to back out, to cave under pressure. Gaara glared at them. They were not worthy ninja. How pathetic Konoha genin were, to quit after only a little mental abuse. He'd been through worse.

Gaara looked over a Sakura and was pleased to see that at least she had the sense not to raise her hand. Then, he saw one trembling, milky arm begin to raise. _No! How can you not see that the examiner is tricking you? _Then, Sakura gasped as she looked at something in front of her. Gaara followed the path of her eyes. He saw that blond, loud, rather annoying teammate of hers raise his hand_. Ugh. He must be the reason why. He doesn't seem to be very book-smart._

Then the blond did an amazing thing. He slapped his hand down on the table and yelled, "Screw you! I'm not going to run away! I'll take this problem. Even if I become a genin forever, I'll still become Hokage! Dattebayo! I'm not scared!"

_**What a loud person. I'd put money on the odds that he'll be the first to be slaughtered during our rampage. What about you, squirt? What do you think of him?**_

_He's interesting enough, I suppose. I almost hope that I don't kill him. _Gaara smirked. _Almost._

The scarred examiner sighed, "I will ask one more time. This is the choice that will change your life. If you want to quit, now is your chance."

The blond only smirked, "I won't take back my words. That's my way as a ninja."

Gaara was intrigued. _What an interesting "way of the ninja". _

_**However, it will only get him killed, poor bastard.**_

The examiner nodded, "Nice determination. Then, for the first exam... everyone here passes."

Gaara smirked. _I had a feeling he had something up his sleeve like this._

Sakura stood up, "Wait, what's the meaning of this? We pass already? What about the tenth question?"

Gaara shook his head minutely. She honestly had no idea what was going on. Sakura, he mused, was surprisingly naive for someone so intelligent.

The examiner only laughed, "There was no tenth question to begin with. Unless you call the two answer choice you just made a question."

_**I thought it was something like that. This guy's good.**_

_Hai, he is._

Temari called out, "So what were the previous nine problems? A waste?"

_Pretty much. Unless you count testing our stealth abilities._

The examiner sighed, "No, it's not. The nine problems accomplished their purpose. The purpose was to test an individuals information gathering skills. First, this test's purpose lies in the first rule. Your pass-fail basis is on your team's total points. By giving that idea, we have given you an enourmous amount of pressure not to be a burden to your team."

The blond nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I was kind of sensing that in this test."

Gaara closed his eyes in annoyance. What a baka...

The examiner spoke again, "But these test problems cannot be answered by you Genins. So, most of the people here must have come to the conclusion, 'I have to cheat to get points,' In other words, this exam assumed that everyone was going to cheat. So, we snuck two Chuunin in to be the targets of such cheating, seeing as they knew the answers already."

Gaara sighed when he heard the loud blond boasting again. It was rather obvious that he hadn't found the two Chuunins.

"But those who cheated like a fool failed, of course. Why?" the examiner took off his bandana hitai-ai, "Information can have higher value than life at times, on missions and in battlefields. Information is contested with the lives of people."

His scalp was a tapestry of scars, criss-crossing this way and that. It appeared that he'd even had screws in his skull at one point in time. Ninja life was a dangerous one.

"Information that an enemy gets after being noticed by a third person will not be necessarily accurate. Remember this. Getting incorrect information can cause great damage to your teammates and village. So, we made you all gather information in the form of cheating. We kicked out those who were lacking in that field. That's what we went on."

Temari shook her head, "But I still can't agree to that last question."

"But this tenth question was the main question of this first exam."

Sakura piped up, "What do you mean?"

The examiner held out his arms, "Allow me to explain: this question was a 'take or not take' choice. Needless to say, it was a painful two-choice problem."

_Only for others. For me it was no problem._

"Those who did not take it failed their exam. If you chose to take it and could not answer it, your right to take the exam would have been taken away forever. It was a very insincere problem. Now, about this problem; let's assume that you have become a Chuunin. Your mission is to capture a secret document. The number of enemy ninja, their abilities, and weapons are unknown, and there may be traps that the enemy has set up. Now, will you accept this mission or not? Just because your life and your teammates lives may be in danger, are you able to avoid dangerous missions? The answer is no. There are missions that carry heavy risks, but that must be taken. The ability to show your courage to your teammates when needed, and the ability to get through a bad situation: that is what we look for in a Chuunin; a squad leader. Those who cannot bet their fate in a critical situation, those who give up when given the chance because there is next year, and lets their mind sway over an uncertain future...

Fools who only carry a light determination have no right to become a Chuunin."

Gaara frowned. _How odd. This man has been tortured beyond what most of these idiots can comprehend, but he still attempts to pass on his morals on to them. We don't have anyone like him in Suna. _Gaara looked around the room. _Now that I think about it, all the people I have met here seem to be somehow different from the people I have seen and heard in Sunagakure._

_I wonder if I will ever figure out the difference. _

**_

* * *

_**

A/N

Gaara! Where in the world did you learn that foul language! Oh right. Shukaku. XD

Note: a Ninken is a ninja dog. Gaara is talking about Kiba when he mentions the boy with the ninken.

I've finally lived up to the T rating I gave this tory. I'm so proud. (sniffle, wipes away tear).

Remember, I update faster if you review. ;D

Toodles,  
_Arctic Ice_

_Next Chapter: The Second Exam begins! Orochi-likes little boys-maru enters the picture and Sasuke falls into a comatose state. Naruto soon follows. It seems that it's the end for the gang when a trio of Sound nin attack, until an unexpected guest appears. Oh, the possibilities._

* * *


	4. I Will Protect You

**_a/n_**

Yo. It's been a while. I could make some lame excuse that I've been busy- which I have - but it really wouldn't make a difference, now would it?

So, anyway. I've had some difficulties editing this chapter on FFdotnet. For some reason, the edit/preview document feature feels the need to delete my spaces and run my words together. I apologize in advance for any of this particular kind of grammer error. I really did try to fix it.

**Word Count: 4,362  
Genre: Romance/Drama  
Pairing: GaaSaku**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting here writing fanfiction, now would I?_

* * *

Gaara tapped his foot impatiently. He and his siblings were at the gates, waiting for the time to pass. He almost smirked. He was sure that it would take them little to no time at all to get to the tower. He doubted that any of the other genin here matched their skill, even those from Suna. They were weak compared to him and his siblings.

The Chuunin that waited at their gate - Gate 6 - seemed equally as impatient to get the test started. He kept glancing at the clock and rocking back and forth. Gaara looked up at this so called, "Forest of Death". It hardly seemed frightening to him. Rather, it seemed ethereal. What amazed him about the forest was not its darkness, but the height of its trees. They were simply monstrous and powerful, but elegant at the same time. He rather liked them.

The Chuunin took one last glance at the clock before muttering, "Finally" and walking over to unlock their gate.

"Have fun, kiddos." He drawled with a smirk.

Gaara smirked back. Oh, he'd have fun alright. He'd have loads of fun toying with this man's bloody corpse, that is.

The Sand Siblings jumped up into the forest canopy and started moving with breakneck speed. They jumped from tree to tree, looking like nothing more than peach-colored blurs.

**_So, squirt, how many are we gonna kill today?_**

_I don't know. Three?_

**_Ch, you're holding out on me, aren't you? C'mon, just admit that you want to kill just as must as I want to. It relieves stress, ne?_**

_Fuck off._

Shukaku's laugh rumbled low in Gaara's head, **_you should let me out soon, or I might be inclined to put you to sleep myself._**

Gaara scoffed internally, _Good luck with that, teme tanuki._

**_Thanks squirt. Your support is always appreciated._**

Gaara rolled his eyes at the sarcastic demon that made his unconsciousness its home. He couldn't wait for this part of the exam to be over; he already knew that his siblings and he could take care of themselves in the wilderness. They'd done this before. The forest was silent, save for the _whoosh_ing of his siblings behind him. Gaara was left alone with his thoughts and Shukaku's insane ranting.

After a bit, Kankuro laughed, "Rain Ninja, coming up ahead"

Temari sighed, "Damn it, already? I wanted to get three-fourths of the way in before we started attacking people."

Kankuro growled, "Fine, fine. We'll get as far in as we can and then we'll strategize."

They passed by the Rain Nin quietly, barely making a sound as they flew through the trees. Kankuro frowned.

"Can't we even listen to what they're saying?" he grumbled.

Temari rolled her eyes, "Whatever."

The three Sand Nin stopped and listened. Gaara shook his head. Those Rain Nin were talking rather loudly for shinobi. They should've been extremely hard to hear, if at all, but these shinobi seemed content to blabber away at any volume they pleased to. How annoying.

Of course, it was then that Gaara actually heard what they were saying.

"...Yeah, did you see that little rookie team?"

"You mean the one with the loud blonde?"

Gaara's ears perked up. His brain registered that they were talking about Sakura's team. What were these fuckers talking about her team for?

"Yup, that's the one. You saw that pretty little pinky, didn't cha? She looked like a screamer. She'd be fun to toy with. Once I had my way with her, we could just kill her and take their scroll."

Gaara's jaw clenched. He barely restrained himself from jumping out of the trees and tearing this son of a bitch limb from limb. With Shukaku screaming in his mind to go kill this man, it was extremely difficult to contain his immediate reaction, but his shinobi training held true and he stopped himself in time.

A third voice sighed, "Tarou, are you sure you won't get caught? Things were messy last time. We had to kill all those people... not that anyone minded, but still."

"You worry too much Kyo. I'll just kill those other two brats, fuck her, steal the scroll, and we'll be on our merry way."

Gaara just couldn't stop himself. He growled, "He's dead," then hurled himself from the tree.

Temari yelled, "Gaara! What are you doing?" She quickly jumped down after him. Kankuro had an utterly confused look on his face as he followed suit.

Gaara landed smoothly on the ground. He looked up with an ominously calm expression. He cocked his head and said with a voice that betrayed no emotion, "You are going to die."

The Rain Nin who was named Tarou flinched. He then turned around, saw his would-be attacker, grinned, and crossed his arms. He clearly didn't feel the killer intent rolling off Gaara in waves. Or maybe it was that he didn't think that he was much of a challenge. He was wrong of course, and would pay for his mistake in blood.

"Kids from Suna challenging us straight on..." the one named Kyo drawled.

"...is quite foolish" the shortest one finished.

**_Idiots from the Rain angering the Tanuki Jinchuuriki... Is quite foolish. _**

"You want to fight? Sure thing kid, I'll kick your sorry ass right out of this forest," Tarou grinned.

Gaara only glared at him, "Cut the chatter. Let's fight, Old man from the Rain."

Kankuro apparently figured that this was a good time to talk to Gaara. He had conveniently forgotten that Gaara tended to kill anything he laid eyes upon when he was angry. And right now, Gaara was angrier that he had ever been in his life.

"Hey, Gaara, shouldn't we observe them and gather more information before attacking? If they have the same scroll as us, there's no need to fight."

It might have also helped that he hadn't heard Gaara muttering death threats to the Rain Nin under his breath.

Gaara turned back towards his elder brother and glared at him instead, "Shut the fuck up. I'm fighting."

**_Hell to the yeah! It's Killin' time!_**

Tarou scoffed, "Well then, let's do this!" He whipped six umbrellas off his back in one fluid motion. He threw each one up in the air, one after the other. Soon the six were floating midair.

He laughed as he formed a hand sign, "Die, brat! Ninpon Jouro Senbon!"

The umbrellas righted themselves and began to spin, releasing hundreds upon thousands of needles. Gaara wasn't worried in the slightest. Physical attacks would never work on him. The needles flew down at an alarming rate, churning the ground and embedding themselves into everything they hit. Gaara didn't even have to lift a finger. His sand created a shield for him.

Gaara's face remained impassive, "Is that it?"

Tarou gasped, "Nani, He's unharmed? This can't be!" He sent down another barrage of needles. Another sheet of sand flew up to block them.

"A rain of senbon, huh," He narrowed his eyes, "Then, I'll make a rain of your blood fall."

The Rain Nin were thoroughly spooked at this point. The smaller ones were whispering, trying to formulate a plan to get them out of the mess. The one called Tarou was paralyzed in fright. Then, something inside him snapped.

He charged forward with a yell, "Don't take me lightly!"

Gaara formed a hand seal and flashed a feral grin, "Sabaku Kyuu!"

A hand of sand wrapped around the offending Rain Ninja over and over, leaving only his face uncovered. It then slowly lifted him up into the air. He struggled and screamed, but the sand only grew tighter and tighter, constricting as it anticipated its next kill. Umbrellas began to fall from the air, left and right, as he slowly released his chakra. Gaara picked one up, so as he wouldn't be soaked in this unclean bastard's blood. He wouldn't want it to taint himself, now would he?

Tarou struggled to breathe, "This... isn't so... tough..."

Gaara frowned, "I could cover your loud mouth and kill you... but that would be too merciful on my side. I will slowly crush your bones, one by one, instead."

Tarou shuddered in fear. His glazed eyes looked down at Gaara with a frightened fever. Gaara met his gaze. He had no regret in killing this foul man, he decided. He was scum that needed to be eradicated, before he hurt anyone else. Besides, Gaara rather liked killing. It passed the time, at least.

"Sabaku Sousou!" He closed his fingers one at a time. The cracking of Tarou's bones could be heard throughout the Forest of Death. All of the other teams heaved a simultaneous shudder. Sand dropped from Tarou's dripping corpse. When the two remaining Rain Nin began to get covered in it, they also began to get increasingly more frightened. They both started shaking with fear.

Gaara looked up and stared with no mercy at the remaining Rain Nin, "The tears and blood of the dead mixes with an endless quicksand and further fuels the beast inside of me."

Kyo shuddered and pulled out their scroll as a last resort, "We'll-we'll give you the scroll!" He quickly walked forward and placed it on the ground before darting back again.

"Please!" The smaller Rain Nin pleaded, "Let us go!"

Gaara's answer was plain. He lifted up his arms and prepared to crush the two remaining Nin. He closed his eyes as his sand cloaked them in the garb of the soon-to-be dead.

He didn't even twitch as he calmly said, "Sabaku Sousou!" And sent them to their maker.

**_Oh, that was delicious. Now squirt, feed me more. I need more blood, more bodies! Kill for me. _**Gaara clutched his head. Shukaku's frenzied screaming was giving him a headache.

Kankuro walked over and casually picked up the scroll, "How convenient. It's a Heaven scroll. Yosh, head for the tower now."

Gaara growled, "Shut up. I still haven't had enough."

Kankuro said more forcefully, "Let's stop, Gaara."

Gaara shifted his eyes to his brother, "Are you afraid, coward?"

Kankuro grimaced and tried to reason with his younger brother, which in Kankuro's opinion, was easier said than done, "You might be okay, but it's too dangerous for us! We only need one set of scrolls."

Gaara only glared at his feeble attempt, "You baka. Don't order me around."

Kankuro grabbed onto the strap that was attached to Gaara's gourd and lifted it slightly, "Cut it out! Why don't you listen to what your big brother has to say, once in a while?

Gaara said calmly, "I have never thought of you two as siblings. If you get in my way, I will kill you." With that, Gaara smacked Kankuro's hand away from his strap and raised his hand in the Sabaku Kyuu position.

Temari stuttered, "G-Gaara, stop! Don't be so cold. This is your big sister asking you, ne?"

Gaara swung his hand forward as if to engulf his brother in sand, but the turned it back to his side. Sand began collecting in his palm and he slowly clenched his fist. When he snapped it closed, Kankuro visibly flinched.

"Fine," Gaara growled. As the sand cleared in his fist, the cork to his gourd was visible. He stoppered up his gourd and turned to leave, "Let's get moving."

_We better catch up to Sakura soon. There might be more motherfuckers like these out to get her._

Kankuro waited until Gaara was out of earshot before muttering under his breath, "Damn it. This is why I hate kids."

* * *

Sakura struggled to keep her eyes open. It had been a very long night and she had been standing vigil over the unconscious bodies of Naruto and Sasuke ever since Orochimaru had left. She was shaking from exhaustion. Sakura knew her limits quite well and she was fairly sure that if she didn't get some sleep soon, her body would shut itself down. She could only thank Kami that she hadn't used up very much of her chakra reserves. She could heal herself enough that she could take some of her exhaustion away, but the hand seals needed to perform the healing jutsu were escaping her at that particular moment.

The bushes rustled and Sakura jumped. Was it finally the attacker she'd been waiting for all night?

A squirrel ran out of the bushes that had been moving before, causing Sakura to relax slightly and sigh with relief. Then, it started to run towards her. Sakura wasn't nervous about the squirrel itself, but the poor thing could activate the trap she had placed. She didn't want an innocent creature to get impaled or crushed.

Sakura continued to guard her boys faithfully for about another thirty minutes before she heard another noise of any kind. At this point, the rustling started again, and Sakura raised her hands, as if to deflect an attacker. Then, a voice called out to her.

"Not sleeping and taking watch for the entire time... but there's no need. Can you wake Sasuke-kun for us? We want to fight him."

Sakura shivered, _These guys are..._

She recognized the three shinobi as Sound Nin. She had seen the trio before the First Exam and distinctly remembered what they had done to Kabuto. She hoped that she could hold them off long enough for Sasuke or Naruto to wake up so they could drive them off. It killed Sakura inside that she was so useless. Still, she reached into her pouch for a kunai, and whipped it our as fast as she could.

She stood up and glared at them, "What are you talking about? What is your purpose? We know that a guy named Orochimaru is behind all of this."

The trio of Sound Nin looked startled. They clearly hadn't expected her to know that.

She continued in a quieter voice, "What's that weird bruise thing on Sasuke's neck? You want to fight Sasuke-kun after you did this to him?"

The one named Dosu answered her cryptically, "I wonder, too, what is that person thinking?"

The one with black, Kakashi-like hair stood and said, "But now that we've heard that, we can't ignore it. I'll kill this girl too. I'll even kill the Sasuke guy."

Dosu spoke, "Wait, Zaku."

Zaku looked irritated, "What?"

Dosu walked towards Sakura and put his hand to the ground, "How unoriginal. The color of dirt indicates that it has just been dug up. This grass doesn't grow here. There is no meaning to a trap if it isn't made well." He lifted up the obviously fake grass slightly, to prove his point.

Zaku scoffed, "How dumb. She threw that kunai so the squirrel wouldn't get caught in the trap."

Dosu cocked his head, "Let's kill her right away."

Then the trio leaped towards her, as if to attack. Sakura smirked and cut a wire next to her. Suddenly, a log fell from the canopy of trees above, right in the Sound Nin's jump path. They shrieked. Then, Dosu touched the log with his right arm and made a hand sign. The log quickly disintegrated and they continued flying threw the air towards her.

Dosu sighed, "To be blunt, you have no talent at all. People like you need to work harder."

A lone tear formed in Sakura's left eye. She knew that he was right. She was talentless, and useless. She was a piece of trash ninja who didn't deserve to be on a team as great as hers. Then, something unexpected happened. Zaku, Dosu, and the black-hair girl were knocked to the ground as an achingly familiar voice called out, "Konoha Whirlwind!"

The green-clad owner of the voice landed in front of Sakura, complete with a squirrel on his shoulder. She started and gasped, holding her arms and her kunai in a defensive position.

She was in shock, "...Nani?"

The jumpsuit-wearing ninja said, "Then the three of you also need to work harder."

Dosu growled, "Who are you?"

He answered, "Konoha's Beautiful Blue Beast, Rock Lee! Yosh!"

Sakura tried to regain her voice, "W-why are you here?"

Lee didn't look back as he spoke, "When you are in danger, I will appear at any time. Not really..." he set the squirrel down, "It was all thanks to you. Now go." The squirrel didn't need to be told twice. It scampered off into the surrounding foliage.

Sakura didn't quite understand, "But right now, I'm your enemy too..."

Lee chuckled, "I told you before. I will protect you to the death."

Sakura remembered his words before the First Exam.

_Flashback:_

_Lee grinned and assumed his, 'good guy' pose, "Let's go out together! I will protect you with my life!"_

_End Flashback._

Sakura leaned back, "Oh... thank you."

Dosu growled, "We have no other choice. Zaku, I'll give Sasuke-kun to you." He threw their scroll to him, "I'll kill these two."

Dosu charged towards Lee with a yell. Lee quickly reached into the ground and pulled out a large tree root.

He said, "Your attack has some sort of trick to it, right? I won't dodge it in a normal way, then. I saw your move before."

Sakura could only blink. _He's... strong. I'd never have imagined that since that Sand Nin almost crushed him..._

Lee began to unwrap his arm bandages. Sakura looked up at him questioningly, and wondered what in the world he was doing. Dosu charged Lee, but suddenly, he disappeared, only to reappear and kick Dosu in the chin. He then kicked off from the ground and traveled through the air with Dosu.

He yelled, "I'm not done yet!" The bandages from his arms began to wrap around Dosu's torso and trap his arms. Lee grasped his waist and prepared to hurtle downward. Lee started to spin in a vicious downward spiral. At the last moment, Zaku jammed his arms into the ground, and a mound of earth formed. Sakura looked toward Dosu hopefully.

Zaku chuckled, "Oh boy... Looks like I made it in time, eh?"

Dosu's legs stuck straight up in the air. His torso and head were immersed in the dirt. He quickly flipped out of the mound, and shook his head tiredly.

Lee was shocked, "That can't be!"

Dosu growled, "That's one terrifying move. I was plunged into this sponge ground, but it still hurt like hell," he pulled up his sleeve to reveal the same odd gauntlet that had made Kabuto sick earlier, "Now it's my turn."

Lee was breathing heavily as Dosu charged forward, swiping at him. Lee dodged the move, but still seemed to be hit anyway as he wobbled back and forth.

Sakura gasped, "Lee-san!"

Dosu spoke quietly, "You move is indeed fast, but our moves are the speed of sound and exceed yours. You are a fool."

Lee wobbled some more before falling down on one knee. Dosu walked up to him and put is arm to the side of Lee's head. He flicked his odd arm bracer. Lee shuddered violently and threw up.

Dosu chuckled, "This arm amplifies the sound that is generated inside to its maximum like a speaker. Your eardrum is now shattered, considering the force of my attack and the proximity of the arm to your ear."

Lee cringed and fell to the ground, shaking.

He continued, "I will teach you that there is a wall that you can't get past just by hard work."

Sakura stood up, "You're wrong."

All the Sound Nin and Lee whipped there heads around to look at her. She adopted a fighting stance similar to the one Lee used. She gripped her kunai tightly and began to walk forward.

"You're wrong," She repeated, "Hard work is greater than talent. Talent is the natural ability to do something. If you work hard enough, you can surpass someone's talents."

The black-haired girl laughed, "Do you believe that because you know by experience, or do you believe that because it's the only chance you have to be even a semi-decent kunoichi? You can't even protect your own teammates! Fuzzy Brows here had to come to your rescue."

Sakura narrowed her eyes and threw five shuriken towards Zaku, but he lifted up his arms and released air pressure through small holes in his palms. Sakura dodged the stray weapons as they flew back towards her and stared at him. She'd never seen someone fight this way. She started to fall, but was grabbed by the black-haired girl, whose hands were yanking her rosette locks.

She smirked, "Your hair is glossier than mine. If you have time to care for your hair, train more!" She whipped Sakura's head back and forth, "Trying to be sexy? Zaku! Kill that Sasuke guy in front of this pig."

Zaku grinned, "Sounds good, Kin."

Sakura lurched forward and screamed at them, "I won't let you!"

The girl who was apparently named Kin pulled on Sakura's hair and clutched it tighter, "Don't move!"

Sakura started to run her fingers through the dirt at her hands. _I can't move... _She started to cry, one by one tears fell into her lap. She tried to stop. She didn't want these horrible Sound Nin to see her cry.

_I'm just being a nuisance again. I've always been protected. This is so vexing. I thought that I wouldn't be one this time... I thought it was my turn to protect my precious people. _

Zaku began to walk forward, "Let's do this."

_I won't let them hurt my precious people anymore!_

Sakura quickly pulled a kunai out of her leg pouch. She gripped it steadily before Kin laughed, "There's no point to that. That won't work on me."

Sakura twisted her head around to meet Kin's eyes with a hateful smirk, "What are you talking about?"

Kin's eyes widened, "Nani?!"

Sakura took the kunai and placed it at the edge of Kin's fingers. With one short, decisive cut, she lopped off all but five inches of the hair that Kin had been holding onto. The metallic cutting sound the kunai made echoed across the surrounding forest area, causing those in hiding - namely one Team Ten - to flinch. Sakura's hitai-ai slipped off her head and fell to the ground with a clank.

_I've always thought that I've been acting like a grown-up shinobi. I've always been saying that I love Sasuke-kun. I always lectured Naruto like I was better than him. Yet, all I've been doing is watching their backs, as they grow stronger and stronger and move farther away. Still, they always fought to protect me. Lee-san, you said you liked me and fought with your life while protecting me. I think you taught me something. I want to become like you three. Everyone, this time, please watch my back._

Sakura stood up tall and proud. She would no longer sit on the sidelines and watch as her precious people put themselves in danger for her sake. She would take a stand right here and right now, and repay her protectors by returning the favor.

Zaku's eyes widened, "Kin, kill her!"

Kin pulled out five senbon when Sakura started to form hand signs. Kin plunged the senbon into Sakura, only to find that she had substituted a log for her body. Zaku grinned. He guessed that Sakura was to the right. Sure enough, Sakura began to run towards him with several kunai clutched in her grip. Zaku held up his arms, palms out and blasted her with air. Suddenly, Sakura disappeared in a splash of water. It had not been Sakura herself, but only a water clone. Zaku hadn't expected this. She hadn't used any water jutsu earlier. Then again, she hadn't used any jutsu at all.

Zaku looked up and chuckled. She was so obvious. Of course she'd attack from above next. He threw a kunai into another water-Sakura that jumped at him from above. She exploded like a water balloon might and splattered him with water.

He smirked, "It's not going to work on me twice, sorry."

Sakura lunged at him again from above. He only grinned and threw another kunai at her. He didn't notice when, instead of causing her to disintegrate with a splash, it embedded itself in her arm.

He started looking around again, "Now, where's she going to go this time?"

He heard a voice shout fiercely from above, "Mizukata: Dokuhebi no Jutsu!"

A giant snake made of water rose from the ground, seeming to draw on the water she had created from her clones. Zaku stared with fear in his eyes at the giant snake as it lunged towards him with its fangs bared. He tried to blow the monster away, but he only succeeded in blowing two holes in its torso. It continued toward him, mouth wide. The watery jaws clamped onto Zaku's arms with a fang embedded in each. He screamed in pain before collapsing, unconscious.

Sakura turned to Dosu and Kin and smirked, "Don't underestimate me. I've studied that move over and over. I know whether or not hard work is worth it. Oh, by the way, the snake only injected a minuscule amount of poison. He's only asleep. If I'd told it to inject more poison, he'd be dead now."

Dosu smirked, "Don't get all high and mighty, pinky. We're still stronger than you by a long shot. Zaku is the weakest member of our squad. It's no accomplishment to have beaten him. Now, you did know that water amplifies sound naturally, didn't you?"

Sakura's eyes widened, "Shit!"

Dosu slammed his fist to the ground and punched his arm bracer. Vibrations of sound ran along the puddles that soaked the ground and up to Sakura's ankles, which was immersed in said puddles. She was racked with waves of sound and she shook until her ears began to bleed. She fell to the ground, shaking.

Kin laughed cruelly and sauntered forward to slit Sakura's throat with the kunai in her grasp when suddenly someone ground out, "Touch her and die."

Kin and Dosu flinched and looked up at this new arrival. A mess of crimson hair, an unforgettable love kanji tattoo, and piercing aquamarine eyes met their gaze unflinchingly. Gaara of the Sand had arrived.

* * *

**_a/n_**

Ooh, cliffy. What fun. XD

Jutsu's used( in no particular order):

Mizukata: Dokuhebi no Jutsu= Water Style: Poison Snake Jutsu  
Ninpon Jouro Senbon=Sprinkling Needles  
Sabaku Kyuu=Desert Coffin  
Sabaku Sousou=Desert Funeral

Review, por favor!

love,  
Ice Ice Baby. XD

_Next Chapter: Gaara goes into an all out battle with the two reaminign Sound Nin. Who will win this battle for the ages? And will Sakura recover from her eardrum injury? Read the next chapter to find out!_


	5. Taking Over Me

**_a/n_**

Let me just say how sorry I am: GOMEN NASAI, EVERYONE. -bows until forehead touches ground-

Now, with that out of the way... This chapter has profanity and violence in it. Bewaaarree.

Note: The title shares its name with an Evanescence song. Mainly because the song inspires me to write more of this.

**Word Count: 4,009  
****Genre: Romance/Drama  
Pairing: GaaSaku**

_Disclaimer: Own Naruto? HA. HAHAHAHAHA. Get real._

* * *

Gaara gazed down at Sakura. To be honest, she looked like she'd been to Hell and back. He glared at the two remaining Sound Nin. He didn't know if there were more enemies around, but it seemed that they were the only ones in the area, save for that boy in the green jumpsuit he'd tried to kill earlier. Frankly, he looked even worse than Sakura.

Suddenly Sakura rasped, "Why are you here?"

Gaara blinked and crinkled his brow, "For you, I suppose. I'm not sure myself."

Her eyes widened and her thin pink brows met. She looked dreadfully confused. Gaara couldn't blame her. He wasn't quite sure what was going on either.

Sakura looked slightly worried. "Please don't hurt Lee-san. Those Sound Nin already gave him a beating when he tried to protect me..." she trailed off as her body was racked with coughs. Sakura sounded nearly as bad as she looked.

Still, Gaara couldn't help but to turn to look at the green-suited shinobi. It was rather surprising news. He had protected her? Gaara had newfound respect for this Lee. Maybe he wouldn't have to dismember the kid after all. Then again...

Kin, at this point, was getting extremely impatient. She was nearly beside herself with anger. She had almost gotten that pink-haired bitch, and God damnit, she was going to finish what she started. Kin decided to put a quick end to this reunion of sorts by charging forward and plunging some senbon in Gaara. Or, at least, that had been the plan.

There were two _plunk_s as the senbon sunk into the sheet of sand that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere to protect Gaara. The Sand Nin himself was holding up a single hand, as if to deflect an attack from her. Gaara's eyes held an amused glint.

Kin's eyes widened, "Fuck."

She froze as sand fists snaked around her neck. She shrieked and flipped away from the tan appendages. They chased after her with an alarming speed. Kin's eyes widened as she realized the danger and ran away from them, flipping through the air again to avoid the ghastly things. Dosu, on the other hand, had a different plan. He tried instead to get up close to Gaara's ultimate defense, in what seemed to be an attempt to burst Gaara's eardrums from behind the sand shield. It would have worked had the two hands chasing after Kin not swiftly grabbed his throat and choked him. Once he was unconscious, the hands formed sand bounds and Dosu was quickly trussed up, complete with a sand gag. It had also plugged his prized arm so it could no longer emit its deadly vibrations.

Gaara turned around to check on Sakura; she was trying to get up. However, her legs refused to cooperate and gave out on her as soon as she hefted herself off the ground. Gaara began to walk towards her when suddenly three senbon whizzed by, aimed towards his head. They were immediately caught by Gaara's sand shield, but on second glance, two of the needles had small bells attached with string. They tinkled merrily in the wind, and Kin laughed cruelly.

A feral grin graced her delicate features, "Meimu: Tsurai Sendou."

The bells grew louder and louder still until their ringing was the only noise he could hear. All the noises of the forest: animals tottering around, the wind blowing in the trees; all had dissipated. He whipped his head around from right to left. The forest around then was gone; it had seemingly melted away. Now all he could see was pitch black darkness, with its inky tendrils sneaking around his wrists. Soon, Gaara was bound with the darkness itself and Kin was sauntering forward, giant sword in hand. Not surprisingly, it had not been in her grasp previously.

Kin laughed darkly, "Confused? You should be. Welcome to my genjutsu: it's going to be your own personal hell."

Gaara gulped audibly. In a genjutsu, there was no sand shield or armor to protect him. He was on his own, save for a demented tanuki. Where was that blasted demon when you needed him the most?

_**Sorry squirt; you ain't getting out of this one easy. **_

_What do you mean?_

_**It must be one of those forbidden genjutsu. In other words, it's too powerful for me to break on my own. Must be a class S at very least.**_

_There's absolutely nothing that you can do?_

_**I'm afraid not. Don't worry and remember: none of this is real.**_

_That will not be much comfort when she stabs me with that ridiculously large sword. If she wasn't a female, I would assume that she was compensating for something._

Shukaku chuckled darkly, _**Whoa, nice one, squirt. You come with that one on your own?**_

… _Kankuro said something similar once when we were fighting one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. I assumed that it would be an appropriate remark on this occasion._

_**Che, you sound like such an old man, squirt. Maybe you should hang out with kids your own age instead of Little Miss Fan and the Dumbass.**_

_I'll give it some thought. No promises, however._

**_Wouldn't dream of it, squirt._**

Gaara was dragged out of his inner turmoil by a far greater, if unreal, danger. Kin charged towards him with a yell and swung her sword down towards Gaara's shoulder. To be honest, no one had ever managed to wound Gaara before, and so he had absolutely no idea what it felt like. He soon wished that he never had figured it out.

As Kin lunged forward, a faint memory of Yashamaru sprang forward, unbidden.

_He had been much younger, six at the most. It was after the other children in the village had lost their ball and Gaara had recused it for them. Despite that, they had run away from him. Gaara unthinkingly raised his arms towards them and caught them with his sand. He never meant to hurt them, he'd just wanted to play! _

_He spoke in his six-year-old voice "Yashamaru?"_

_"Hai, Gaara-sama?"_

_"What exactly is pain? I've never been injured, so... I wonder what it's like."_

_Yashamaru had paused for quite a while before answering him, "I can't explain it very well, but I think I can say for sure that it's unpleasant. You're unable to stay your usual self. It can be afflictive or dreadful, like when you're beaten or cut... Hmm, how should I put it?"_

_Gaara remembered that his heart had hurt at his uncle's explaination. Did that mean..._

_"Then, do you... hate me?"_

_Yashamaru smiled a little, "There are times in life when people hurt others and get hurt, but it's not that easy to dislike someone from such an experience."_

_"Thank you. I think I understand what pain is..."_

_"Is that so?"_

_"Does that mean that I am injured just like everyone else?" Yashamaru looked startled. Gaara continued, "I always feel pain. Although it doesn't bleed, this part hurts so much."_

_Gaara grabbed at the spot where he hurt the most. It was a dull throbbing that ached with such an intensity that Gaara wondered if he would ever be rid of it. He didn't think so._

_Gaara still had that pain. It felt the same now as it had when he'd been six and Yashamaru had still been his only friend. If anything, it hurt worse now. He couldn't help but feel hopeless when he thought about Yashamaru's other words: that pain of the heart could only be healed by love. Gaara had wondered then what love was. No one had ever truly loved him. Even now, Gaara wondered if anyone would ever feel towards him what Yashamaru had described. More importantly, would he ever feel that way towards anyone else?_

_His hand had been over his heart._

Gaara realized that he was in pain. It surprised him, because he had almost completely forgotten about Kin and everything else in this genjutsu. It had been foolish, an amateur's mistake. Gaara was no amateur.

It burned like fire and spread rapidly across Gaara's torso to trickle down both arms and his mid-section. He struggled not to let out a roar of pain that he had been unconsciously holding in. Kin pulled her sword out of him in jerky, unsettling movements. Gaara's shoulder was racked with almost unbelievable pain. Kin took her time as she slowly carved an X on Gaara's chest, slicing off his gourd strap and his sash. He grimaced and bit back his roar, nearly cutting through his lower lip in the process. He was breathing quite heavily at this point and was only wishing feverently that this torture would soon be over. He was ready to let the blackness take him so that he wouldn't have to face this pain anymore.

Kin smirked, "It hurts doesn't it, you suna-teme? Well, don't worry. It'll be over soon."

She drew back her sword and prepared to stab Gaara in his heart. He stiffened, expected to look down and see the giant sword sticking out of his chest, coupled with even more pain. He scrunched his eyes shut until he heard a familiar female voice yell hoarsely, "Release!"

The forest melted back into place and Gaara collapsed. He fell on all fours, gasping for air. He looked back at Sakura, who was still lying down, but had managed to form the genjutsu release seal just in time.

She coughed, "Was that your first genjutsu?"

Shakily Gaara nodded. He'd never been caught in one of the ghastly things before.

Sakura smiled kindly, "I thought so. Are you alright?" Sakura attempted to push herself back up, "She used a pretty high-class one on you. Death genjutsu are the absolute worst kind. Actually, I'm surprised that she's still conscious."

Of course, Kin! How could he have forgotten about her? Gaara swung his head forward again to see the female Sound Nin in an almost identical position as himself. If he felt like vomiting, Gaara could only imagine how she felt. However, she was still a rather strong opponent. He was worried that she would be able to get up before he was.

Sakura chuckled behind him, and his head swiveled back around yet again, "Oh, don't worry about her. I'll take care of it."

She quickly formed a water clone and had it walk up to Kin's coughing form.

Sakura smirked, "She really shouldn't have used a jutsu beyond her level. If I hadn't released it, she'd be dead. Anyway, henge!"

The water clone was transformed into the spitting image of Zaku. The water-Zaku rolled the real one into the bushes and then stood next to Kin.

The water-Zaku said, "Mizuhitoya no jutsu."

Kin was now trapped in a circular water prison. Sakura herself slumped down again. Gaara wondered if she had ignored her own advice and performed a jutsu beyond her current reserves of chakra. She must have been quite low, considering all the fighting that she had been doing lately. He shook his head in disbelief. He would never understand this girl.

Gaara shakily stood and slowly made his way over to Sakura. He was recovering quickly. Of course, seeing as he had only been under mental duress and Sakura had been making her way through the forest with her team and had undoubtedly encountered many more dangers than his own team, it made sense that she would be exhausted. Gaara pressed two slim fingers to her neck and felt for her pulse. Even through his sand armor, he could feel its steady beat. Gaara almost smiled.

Sakura's eyes fluttered open at his touch, "Gomen... Gaara-san, right? I should have listened to myself, ne?" She laughed weakly, "Oh well. I should be fine. It's only chakra exhaustion."

Gaara admired her strength. She could barely keep her eyes open, but she still managed to be kind to him. What had he ever done to deserve her kindness? He was despicable; a monster. She was pure and beautiful, like an angel. His demon aura would only taint her purity. He would fill her wonderful light with darkness, leaving nothing left but an empty hull. Gaara had never hated himself more than in that single moment. The only time that he had ever felt even close to this awful was when his uncle had told him of his mother and the origin of his name. The love kanji on his forehead burned and he scrunched his eyes tightly closed.

Then, his eyes flew open again. What in the world was he thinking? Gaara wasn't the type to lament his problems, nor was he particularly romantic. This train of thought made absolutely no sense. He looked down at Sakura. What was this girl doing to him?

Shukaku sighed, **_Just when you had almost figured it out, too._**

_...What are you yammering on about?_

_**Oh, never mind. You'll never get it. Why?**_ He stomped around inside of Gaara's mind, waving his arms around. _**Why is my host so damn oblivious?**_

_Stop acting ridiculous. I've got to take care of her, anyway._

"Sleep, Sakura." He said in the most gentle voice that he could manage, "Nemuri Motte Ie Mugen Waza."

Sakura's eyes slowly shut and she slurred out a few last words, "Arigato gozaimasu... Gaara-kun."

Then she was sleeping peacefully, her head lolling to the side. Gaara removed the sand armor from his arms – he'd noticed that others didn't like the grainy texture – and swiftly lifted her up. He was startled, for a moment, unaware that she still smelled as good as she had before. He was almost overpowered with her mouthwatering scent that made him want to do things that he would never even consider were he in a sane frame of mind. He shook his head; it wouldn't do to worry about it. He'd just suppress whatever he was feeling and analyze it later. Gaara started to walk away, carrying her bridal style. It was time find his pesky siblings.

Of course, said siblings chose this exact moment to arrive in the clearing, sweating heavily and out of breath. Once they had regained their breath and started to glance around, their eyes grew large. At first, Gaara thought it might have been the sight of all the unconscious Genin scattered about that had made them startled, but then he noticed that their eyes were not roving over the Sound Nin or Sakura's team, but at Sakura herself, safely nestled in Gaara's arms.

Temari was the first to speak.

She said softly, as if she was afraid he would do something rash, "Gaara, can you hear me? It's your big sister, Temari!"

Gaara said in clipped tones, "Obviously I can hear you. Your mouth is moving. I haven't activated _that _jutsu yet. I am not unintelligent, nor do I appreciate being talked to as if I am."

Temari laughed nervously, "Of course not, Gaara. That's not what I was implying... Still, what are we going to do with the bodies?"

Gaara sighed, "We are leaving the Sound shinobi behind. However," he pointed to Sasuke and Naruto, "they are coming with us."

* * *

Kankuro was dreadfully confused and pretty damn angry. First of all, his bloodthirsty little brother had suddenly gone bounding off in a very odd direction. Wherever it was, it certainly wasn't towards the tower, _where they were supposed to be going. _Why, oh why couldn't things go according to plan, just once? Gaara always had to kill lots of people or screw something else up entirely.

Kankuro conveniently forgot that on at least of half of the missions that he was complaining about that_ he_, not Gaara had been the one to cause all the mayhem. Still, you couldn't blame him. He had just scoured half the forest looking for said little brother.

It had taken forever to find Gaara. The little brat just couldn't be easy to find for once, now could he? No telltale trails of sandy blood and squished corpses, nope, none of that. They had found him eventually, and Kankuro supposed that that was really the only thing that mattered.

Anyway, now that they had caught up with Gaara, they were met with the sight of four unconscious kids, one chick in who seemed to be in a freaking _bubble _of all things, and another kid with his hand in aforementioned bubble, seemingly guarding her. Seriously. This couldn't get any weirder. At least, that's what Kankuro thought before he saw yet another chick who just happened to be snuggling up to the psychotic, bloodthirsty little brother. Gaara never let anyone touch him, and yet here was this girl with ostentatiously pink-colored hair cuddled right up to him, even going as far as to clutch the strap that held Gaara's gourd to his back lightly. And she wasn't just _any_ girl, oh no, she was a _cute _girl. How could Gaara keep his face that blank? Kami knows that Kankuro could never pull it off.

To top it all of, he was _tired. _He really couldn't stop himself from letting all his frustration just flow out of his mouth in idiotic waves of stupidity. He also had happened to forget what Gaara did to people that annoyed him. That might have helped.

"Why in the world would we take _them_," Kankuro gestured angrily at the stupid unconscious brats, "When we've already used up our energy and need to get out to the tower as soon as possible? Absolutely not. Have you forgotten what we came here for? Our mission does not entail carting around stupid little kids when we could already be at the tower now relaxing and preparing for what comes next. Besides, why are you carrying that chick? She'll just slow us down even more-"

Kankuro's memory suddenly returned to him in the form of blood mixed with sand and the mangled bodies of the unfortunate souls who'd annoyed Gaara. He quickly shut his mouth and prayed to Kami that Gaara would squish him quickly.

Surprisingly, Gaara was calm. At least, calmer than expected.

"Kankuro," he sighed, betraying no emotion except that of exasperation, "Do you wish to die? If so, this is neither the time nor the place to voice such a wish, however foolish. To assist you, I would have to put down Sakura, and that is something that I am not willing to do quite yet. As for your questions about the three we will be escorting to the tower, the answer is simply this: unless you wish to continue on by yourselves, we are taking them. Other than that, I do not have to explain myself. I answer to no one, least of all my idiotic brother."

Temari sighed, "Alright, I'll get the other two twerps."

She stomped over to the tree root the two Konoha Genin slumbered under and pulled them out, not bothering to lift them up very high. As a result, Naruto and Sasuke were dragged along the gravelly, not to mention twig-covered, forest floor. Neither was awakened, surprisingly. All Naruto did was snore and Sasuke groaned his unconscious disapproval of his handling quietly. Temari tried to heave both of the boys over her shoulders, but when she swung Naruto up, she nearly fell over because of his unexpected weight.

Kankuro tried to stifle his laughter, "Hey, Temari-nee-san, I'm the man of the family; I'll take one of those brats off your hands. Or shoulders, rather."

Jokes had never been Kankuro's strong point.

Temari and smirked and laughed evilly, " All right, Kankuro-nii-_chan. _You can take the orange one who smells like ramen."

Kankuro just shrugged, "If you say so, shisuta-san. He can't be that heav- Oomph!"

Naruto was unceremoniously thrown into Kankuro's stomach. He was knocked back into the forested area until he collided with a tree, slowly sliding down it, an unconscious Naruto still attached to his stomach. Had Gaara been the laughing type, he would have split his sides from laughing so hard.

Temari's smirk grew wider, "Yeah. He _is_ that heavy."

Kankuro hefted Naruto onto his shoulder and winced, "Damn, what is this kid _eating_? Wet cement?"

Gaara sighed, "Whatever. Let's just get going."

_You know... _Kankuro thought, _Gaara has talked more in the last thirty minutes than I've ever heard him speak in his entire life. _He smirked evilly,_ Well, girls do have that effect on a guy._

Gaara stalked off to the timberline and swiftly jumped up into the trees above. His siblings were only too happy to follow suit, disappearing with no more than a whisper.

* * *

After they had left, the water-Zaku burst and the water prison soon followed suit. Kin fell to the ground on all fours, soaked and coughing up a lungs worth of water. She sputtered until she had rid her respiratory system of the evil liquid. She knelt and began to wring out her hair.

Kin scowled fiercely and ground out, "I'll get that Konoha bitch and that Suna bastard if it's the last thing I do..."

* * *

Gaara set Sakura down lightly. He made sure that her head was supported as he placed her on the soft grass. Naruto and Sasuke lay next to her. They had not been settled onto the forest floor as gently as Sakura had. In fact, they seemed to have more cuts and bruises than they had had before. Not that he minded. Gaara took one look at her serene features before standing up again and glaring at his siblings.

"Are you sure that they're sufficiently covered?" He growled.

Kankuro sighed, "Yeah, yeah. They're fine. Let's just hurry up and get to the tower."

The three started walking towards the giant spire that was less than 100 feet away. The tower wasn't nearly as impressive as it was meant to be, in Gaara's opinion. Frankly, he thought that Konoha should spend more money on raising the guard around their gate than on fancy training grounds. Suna had no such luxuries and they weren't the ones being invaded, now were they?

With only one backward glance, Gaara and his siblings disappeared into the lush foliage. The two teams would meet again soon enough, and Gaara for one, couldn't wait.

* * *

**_a/n_**

Meimu: Tsurai Sendou = Illusion: Painful Death  
Mizuhitoya no jutsu = Water Prison Jutsu  
Nemuri Motte Ie Mugen Waza = Sleep With No Dreams Technique

Drop a review, eh?

Well, a girl can dream.  
_Arctic Ice_

_Next Chapter: Third Exam time! Who will be pitted against each other in this prelimenary round? Wait and find out!_


	6. Sakura's Pain

A/N:

I've been on a mini-hiatus for the past few months because of personal problems, but I will try and update much more frequently now that I'm back. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, all the favourites and alerts as well. That helps me know that people are still interested in this little story of mine. :) So, a big Thank You to you all.

**Word Count: 3,564  
Genre: Romance/Drama  
Pairing: GaaSaku**

Enjoy.

* * *

Sakura's eyes opened slowly; her lids felt heavy with sleep. She wished that she could go back to that blessed state of unconsciousness. Unfortunately, she could hear Naruto scruffling around – more than likely looking for ramen, the baka – and if she didn't stop him soon, he'd wake up the entire forest.

She pushed the upper half of her body off the ground and rubbed her eyes. "Naruto, cut it out! You're going to wake up Sasuke-kun, and he needs to rest-"

She stopped rubbing her eyes and actually looked at the person fumbling around their campsite; she gazed upon a strange shinobi crouched over her teammates. Instead of the lovable blond idiot, this ninja was clad in a yellow jumpsuit and an odd gas-mask covering his mouth and noise.

His eyes narrowed. Running towards her, he pulled out several kunai as he muttered, "Unlucky."

Sakura drew kunai of her own to deflect his attack. In her other hand she grabbed a couple shruiken and threw them at his stomach. Her opponent dodged one, but was struck by the others in his stomach. As he jumped to the side in order to pull the throwing stars out, she drew more kunai and, without turning away from the enemy ninja, backed up to where Naruto and Sasuke lay. They appeared to be unharmed.

As she looked around the clearing, she thought for the first time, _How the hell did I end up here?_

She remembered a slightly familiar face hovering over hers. A face with aquamarine eyes with dark circles and crimson hair.

"_Sleep, Sakura."_

_I guess he was the one who brought us here, whoever he is. That Gaara guy, probably. I wonder... is he still here? No, he surely would have gone on to the tower._

Sakura was snapped out of her thoughts as her enemy pushed himself off the ground and staggered towards her, clutching a kunai like it was his lifeline. She grabbed more shruiken and threw them at his approaching form. He flung up his arms to protect himself, and all of the throwing stars sunk into them. Sakura ran towards him, but tripped over a stray tree root she hadn't noticed. The enemy tackled her and attempted to restrain her.

She struggled to free herself, but his hand latched onto her wrists and forced her to the ground. He chuckled, "How lucky. Are you the one with the scroll? I would think that the dark-haired one would have it, but I didn't find it on him. Anyway, it never hurts to check, ne?"

Realizing escape was not an option, Sakura spat in her opponent's face. He held both her wrists with one hand and used to other to wipe off her saliva.

"You'll pay for that, bitch."

He reached into her shuriken pouch, and rifled around, searching for their scroll. She growled and tried to push him off, but he just kneed her in the stomach.

He sighed. "Not in there, huh? Well, I guess that I'll have to search somewhere else." His hand darted upward.

A sharp voice cut through the air, and the ninja's hand froze. "Get off of her."

Sakura peered around her captor to see if it was really _him_. She saw Sasuke standing up, but something was wrong with him. His skin was covered in odd squiggles that seemed to come from the bruise in his shoulder. More worrisome than that were the purple flames that engulfed his body and his cold, black and gold eyes. She shivered. Something was deathly wrong with the boy she had worshiped for most of her life.

Sasuke walked calmly towards the enemy shinobi and picked him up by his neck. He pushed him up against a tree, still choking him. He raised his fist and punched him in the face.

"Don't touch my teammates. Ever."

Sasuke threw him to the side, and the shinobi skidded until he collided with another tree. Sasuke turned to Sakura. "Do you want me to kill him?"

Sakura was frightened of this Sasuke. Sakura couldn't tear her eyes away, even as she begged her mind to let her regain control of her body. She shuddered as he stepped closer to her. "N-no. Please don't. He was just trying to get our scroll."

He grinned. "I could, you know. Kill him, that is."

Sakura was convinced without a shadow of a doubt that this Sasuke could kill without thought or regret. As a shiver went up her spine, she whispered, "Please don't."

"Why shouldn't I?" he walked up to the unconscious shinobi and whispered, "It would be so easy."

As Sasuke bent over to grab hold of his neck, Sakura ran to him and grabbed his wrist, trying to pull him away from the ninja. Out of some unknown reflex, she shouted, "Kiyomeru no jutsu!"

Sasuke shuddered violently and fell to the ground, still convulsing. Sakura tried to let go of his wrist, but her hand seemed to be stuck to his skin. Her hand grew warm, and the strange marks began to recede – not back into the strange bruise on his shoulder, but to his wrist where he held it. After a few more seconds, he stopped shaking and his skin was back to its normal pallor. When Sakura removed her hand, she was shocked to see that a damp black residue coated the span of Sasuke's wrist. Shakily, he turned her hand over and saw the same residue on her palm.

Sakura stuttered, "W-what _is_ this?"

Unseen and unheard, the enemy ninja croaked out, "U-unlucky..." and stumbled away.

Naruto slowly pushed himself off the ground and shuffled over to Sakura. She quickly wiped her hand off on the ground before he could ask her questions that she didn't know the answer to.

He rubbed his head, yawned, and said, "What happened? This place looks awful, dattebayo!"

She smiled weakly and turned to face him. "You have no idea."

He tilted his head to the side, "Huh? We should probably check on our scrolls, don't you think? The teme looks worse than you do!"

Sparing a glance at Sasuke, Sakura reached into the kunai pouch strapped to her thigh, and felt not only one, but two scrolls snugly sitting side by side_. Weird_... She thought_. I was sure that we only had one. _She shrugged, It wasn't important, really. All that mattered was getting to the tower on time. Sakura was pretty sure that they still had a day left. When she looked through the trees around the clearing, she could spy the tower. She let out a small sigh of relief.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm and heaved him over his back. "C'mon! We're gonna get to the tower a whole day early!"

He bounded off to the large red tower with an unconscious Sasuke over his shoulder and Sakura trailing behind.

* * *

Kakashi knelt beside Sasuke and sighed. "Well, there's not much we can do now. I've already put a suppressor on the curse mark, and the Medic ninja have determined that there's nothing else wrong with him. All we can do is wait until he wakes up."

Sakura sighed, frowned, and looked sadly at Sasuke.

_Sasuke-kun... if I'd only been stronger, I could have stopped Orochimaru from biting you and giving you that awful curse-mark. We would all be together, resting up and preparing for the next exam._

_I'm useless._

_**Please don't beat yourself up. It's not going to make Sasuke wake up any faster.**_

For once, she pushed her inner self's voice out of her mind and let herself be overcome with grief. A single tear rolled down Sakura's cheek. Another followed and soon her face was streaked with tear-tracks. She was racked with silent sobs. Sakura slammed a fist over her mouth, trying to get control over her emotions and still her shaking hands and shoulders. Naruto placed an uncertain hand on top of her other hand and squeezed it.

Quiet for once, he whispered, "It'll be okay, Sakura-chan. The teme's too tough to let that creepy curse mark or whatever beat him."

Sakura gave him a tiny smile. Why had she ever been cruel to him? He was so kind; much kinder than Sasuke. He never ignored her, told her she was annoying, or brushed off her friendly hellos. Naruto was a true friend.

Sakura wiped her tears away and squeezed his hand back. "Thank you, Naruto-san. For everything."

Naruto stared at her, mouth agape. Kakashi stared at her as well, wondering what exactly had happened in that forest to make his only female student change so much. She had always yelled at Naruto before. Now she was being kind - thoughtful even.

Sakura smiled back at the both of them. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go out to the resting area. Feel free to join me, Naruto-san."

A grin lit up his face, and as he rubbed the back of his head he said, "Sure thing, Sakura-chan! Just let me ask Kakashi-sensei something and I'll be there! Dattebayo!"

"Okay." Sakrua gave Naruto one last smile and left the room.

Once the door had firmly closed behind her, Naruto turned to Kakashi and asked him with uncharacteristic seriouusness, "Do _you _know what happened to Sakura-chan?"

Kakashi's lone eyes curved. "You know what, Naruto? I think she's growing up."

* * *

Gaara leaned against the wall of the large room that housed he and his siblings for the remainder of the Second Exam. He wasn't tired at all from their journey, but his siblings were. They lay asleep, tucked into futons placed on the other side of the room. There were a few more stacked up in a corner, but not nearly enough for all the teams who were competing.

_Hm. Doesn't seem like they expect many people to make it._

_**Of course not, squirt. It ain't called The Forest of Death for nothing.**_

…_Whatever you say, Shukaku._

Gaara closed his eyes and wondered what the Third Exam could possibly be. They'd already proved their information gathering skills – First Exam – then they'd shown their survival skills – Second Exam – but now what?

_**Fighting skills. You're awfully oblivious for someone so smart.**_

_Ah. Of course. But what do you mean by oblivious?_

_**Open your eyes.**_

Gaara obliged and was quite surprised to see the familiar face of the pinkette kunoichi he had assisted in the forest not too long ago. Her eyes were closed and she was sitting on the floor with her head leaning on the wall behind her, across the room from him. She looked extremely tired. While his eyes roved her form, he couldn't help but notice that she had acquired more scratches and bruises since he had laid her down on the forest floor. He almost growled in frustration. Did the girl attract trouble or did it somehow find her? Gaara wasn't sure, but whenever he saw her she was in some sort of peril or another. Whether from himself or another shinobi, she couldn't stay away from danger. He had left her in a perfectly secure area and what did she do? She managed to find an opponent to fight.

It was just absolutely infuriating.

Sakura's candy-apple green eyes flew open, and Gaara was stunned. So many emotions flew through her eyes: surprise, confusion, and a little bit of apprehension.

That was ridiculous. What did she have to apprehensive for? It wasn't like he'd done anything to harm her; quite the opposite in fact. He had thought he'd done everything right. When her gaze shifted away, and he read discomfort in her bright eyes, Gaara realized that he'd been staring at her. He quickly turned his gaze to an interesting crack in the wall.

He heard her pick herself up off the floor and begin to walk. When her footsteps became louder, it almost seemed like... but it couldn't be.

He heard her stand before him, and he tore his eyes from the wall to look at her. She still looked apprehensive and perhaps even a little afraid as she bit her lip and averted her gaze.

Then she met his stare and said quietly, but with conviction, "I would like to thank you for saving me earlier. My teammates and I wouldn't have survived if you hadn't shown up." She placed her hands on her thighs and bent over into a deep bow. "Arigato gozamasu, Gaara-san."

Gaara simply blinked. He'd never been bowed to before; he didn't know how to react. He stood stock still, wondering what the hell he was supposed to say. Sakura peeked up at his frozen form, blushed, and quickly bowed her head again.

He managed to stiffly say, "You're welcome." He attempted a bow, but bumped heads with her instead. They both quickly sprung apart and muttered apologies. Gaara was sure his face was flushed a bright enough red to rival his crimson hair.

There was a loud crash as the door to the room was thrown open. A blond Konoha shinobi stumbled through the door. He looked around wildly until he spotted Sakura. A giant grin spread across his face and he bounded up to her.

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan! The teme woke up! Isn't that great news? You've got to come up and see him. He's even talking to Kaka-sensei!"

He was loud as well as blond, it seemed.

Sakura beamed and let out a relieved sigh. "Sasuke-kun..." She turned to Gaara and gave him a giant smile. "Good-bye, Gaara-san. I hope I see you in the next Exam!"

Gaara, stunned again by her smile, could only gurgle out a quiet, "Good-bye..." before she ran out of the room with the loud blond.

Shukaku's chuckle rumbled in Gaara's head. **_I can't wait to see how she fights. It's bound to be... interesting._**

_For once, we agree on something._

* * *

"The first fight will be: Uchiha Sasuke versus Sabaku no Kankuro!"

Sakura bit her lip as Sasuke calmly jumped off of the platform to land with a soft _thump _on the ground below. He quickly straightened up and adopted a fighting stance.

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin when Kakashi whispered in her ear, "Sakura. I need to ask a favor of you."

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself before answering, "Okay, Kakashi sensei. What do you need?"

"Naruto told me about what happened in the clearing. He heard you yell something and saw you drive the curse-seals effects from Sasuke's body. Sakura, I need you to stop Sasuke if he loses control. I won't be able to subdue him completely. You however, will."

Sakura said shakily, "Sensei, I thought N-Naruto was asleep when I-I got rid of the cursed seal."

Kakashi shook his head, "He told me that when he woke up, he saw you latched on to Sasuke's wrist and the curse mark was receding into your hand. I don't know what happened; what I do know is that I need you to stop him."

Sakura nodded, "I think can do that."

_Sasuke-kun... I wish I could ease your pain, too. If only I were stronger._

"Begin!"

Sasuke lunged at Kankuro, kunai drawn. He simply raised his arm to block the knife. Sasuke, who was clearly not expecting this, lost his balance but then flipped backwards and skidded. He started to make a few hand signs, but then hesitated. Sakura wondered what was keeping him from using jutsu; did it have something to do with the curse mark?

Kankuro grabbed the bundle on his back and flipped it over his head he began to unravel it slowly. He didn't get a chance to go any farther than the very top because Sasuke lunged at him again, this time with shruiken. When Sasuke flung them at him, Kankuro simply lifted up his bundle and let the shruiken embed themselves in it. Sasuke aimed a kick at his side, which Kankuro blocked. He kicked again, this time at his back, and Kankuro was caught off-guard and flew into the air. Sasuke kicked him again in the stomach. Kankuro was thrust to the ground; the floor smashed underneath him.

"Itai... You sure do kick hard. Nice work, kid. I haven't been thrown to the ground in a long time." Kankuro poked his head from the rubble and smiled. When he picked himself up, a puppet popped up behind him as well. It had apparently cushioned his fall.

Sasuke frowned. "Hn."

Kankuro laughed, "Now I've got to get serious. What a pain."

The puppet leaped forward and lunged at him with a blade. Sasuke easily dodged it, but then the marionette twisted midair and slashed his arm. Sasuke howled in pain and flipped away. He looked down at his wound and then back at the puppet's blade. It was glistening with some sort of liquid.

_Poison. _Sakura gasped. Sasuke was going to need medical treatment as soon as possible. He stumbled towards Kankuro and let out an enraged yell, kunai drawn. He leaped over the puppet and slashed downwards with a furious aura. Kankuro shuffled backwards, and grabbed his chest. He gave Sasuke a vicious glare as he sent the puppet hurtling after him. In his haste, Sasuke formed handsigns for a jutsu, but was almost immediately overcome by the curse-mark. Sakura nearly leaped over the railing, but Kakashi threw his hand in front of her.

He shook his head. "Not yet."

Sasuke convulsed as Kankuro's puppet advanced, but then his face contorted further and the curse-mark began to recede into his shoulder. He shuddered and forced himself up, blocking his enemy's attack at the last possible second with a kunai. He flipped back to escape the dummy, but it continued it's mad chase after him. It's mouth opened suddenly and senbon glistening with poison shot towards Sasuke. He somersaulted to avoid them, but almost flipped into the wall in his exhaustion. He threw himself at Kankuro, inflicting yet another deep gash. Kankuro trapped Sasuke with his puppet, using the marionette's arms as a cage. Sasuke struggled violently, smashing the back of his head into the puppet. He yelled and then went limp, curse mark emmersing his body. He whacked the dummy one last time before it broke into several large pieces. He pulled himself up from the rubble and ran towards Kankuro with a renewed fevor, normally dark eyes shining bright gold and the curse mark covering his entire body.

Kakashi grasped Sakura's shoulder. "Now."

They shushined down to Sasuke and as Kakashi held Sasuke still enough for Sakura to get a good grip on him, she reached for Sasuke's wrist. Grasping him tightly, she channeled her chakra into him and whispered, "Kiyomeru no jutsu."

Sasuke shuddered as the curse mark flooded into her hand. He slumped forward, unconscious yet again.

The coughing shinobi stepped forward, hacking into his hand. He croaked, "Uchiha Sasuke is unable to fight. Sabaku no Kankuro is the winner of the first match."

Kankuro smirked and jumped back up to the balcony where his team waited. Temari smiled at him, but Gaara's face remained stolid.

Sakura frowned. Poor Sasuke. He was going to go ballistic when he found out he'd lost. She watched as Kakashi and a squad of Medic Nins loaded Sasuke onto a gurney. She walked with them and held Sasuke's hand until the white-clad shinobi ordered her back to what remained of her team. She walked back to Naruto, who was strangely solemn.

He turned to her. "Sasuke'll be alright, Sakura. Dattebayo."

Sakura smiled sadly. "I really hope so, Naruto-san. I do."

The coughing shinobi cleared his throat. Every ninja's eyes were trained on him as he said, "If you would direct your attention to the match board..."

Sakura gasped as she read the dark screen.

"The next match is: Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino."

* * *

A/N:

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_Next Chapter: The fight between the two former friends is going to get heated! Who will come out on top?_


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